Taken
by Owl.pendantry
Summary: Sakura was taken by the Akatsuki, but she doesn't know why, and when one of them tries to force himself upon her… how can she find her way out of this situation?
1. Captured

_I honestly don't know how I got here. I mean, one moment, I was fighting those damn nukenin, and the next, well, now I'm here, in the dark, all alone. I can feel that my wrists and ankles have been bound. I know that what's binding them is the reason I can't use my chakra. Those damn, smart nukenin!_

Sakura could hear noise from outside the room, and it was getting closer. She let her body go limp, feigning sleep.

The door creaked open and she could see the faint shine of light through her closed eyelids. Footsteps were heard moving through the room she was in, closing the space between them, but it stopped just before her. She could hear the mass's breathing. It was somewhat more fast paced than any normal beings' breathing, so she understood from this that something was on the mass' mind, disturbing their thoughts.

For a moment, she heard no new noises, until she heard the mass give a deep sigh and, from what she could gather from her hearing, knelt down to face her.

The mass stayed in that position for several more moments until its' low voice could be heard quite easily.

"Mmm…" Sakura could imagine a male licking their lips, "what a spirited little kunoichi you are. I might just have to break you of that," she felt the back of a hand touch her cheek. At that touch, she couldn't help but open her eyes, wide with panic.

With the small amount of light entering the room, she was able to see just who it was that was touching her in any manner, only to come face to ugly-masked-face with Kakazu, the man, if he could be called that, that she found to be the most disgusting of all Akatsuki members she knew about. She would even prefer the man that looked like a plant above Kakazu, but why was he here.

"Ah… so you **are** awake, kunoichi," he said, pulling a small piece of cloth out from one of his pockets.

"What do you want from me? Why am I here?" she demanded, but the monster in front of her ignored her and went on, pulling the cloth from his pocket. Once it was all out, she noticed it was about a meter in length.

"What are you going to do with that?" she asked, again going unnoticed. Instead, he was folding the cloth in half and then twisting it, so it made a kind of rope.

"…that'll just make this that much more interesting," he continued on from what he previously stated.

"Ka… Kakazu, what are you going to…" but she was cut off, due to the rope-cloth being shoved into her mouth. He moved his body closer to her, making her feel more sick than she already felt, and, although she wasn't quite sure what the man was doing back there, it felt like he was trying to tie a not with the rope-cloth he had created.

"Shh…" he whispered in her ear, bringing shivers to her spine, "just enjoy it."

She felt his body clearing the air between theirs as it moved closer, his head nuzzling into the crook of her neck. She let out a quick gasp of surprise as she felt his hand move around her small frame. She closed her eyes, as if in pain, when his hand grasped her breast.

He slowly licked from her shoulder to her jawline. She let out a small cry, not wanting him to even be in the room with her, let alone touching her.

"I see you like this, Sakura," he was misinterpreting her body's reactions.

She tried to scream that she was, in no way, enjoying what he was doing, but all that came out was muffled words, due to her mouth's confines.

Again, he misinterpreted her body and kissed her neck. He let go and began sucking.

She began crying as he slowly made his way down her body with one hand.

_No! No! Make it stop! GET OFF OF ME!_

* * *

There were low moans and soft whimpers coming from the other side of the door, forcing him to investigate. He knew the room behind the door was Sakura's cell, but he just didn't quite understand what was happening.

_Sakura?_

He didn't understand why she would choose one of them.

_Why? I thought she hated us._

He was able to guess what was happening, but he couldn't understand why Sakura would choose any of them for it, unless it were some ploy to escape.

His thoughts clicked into place and he shoved the door open, preparing himself for the sight of her using one of his teammates as a shield against any weapon to possibly come rampaging through the very door he had just broken through, but instead, his eyes landed on a sight quite the opposite.

Kakazu was holding the half-naked form of Sakura against his body, small red marks showing where he believed she was delicious.

He couldn't believe the sight and surged forward to attack the man holding the captured woman. He knew they needed her help and the only way for her to grant them that was if she trusted them. What Kakazu was doing was **not** the way to go about gaining that trust.

"Kakazu!" he screamed, preparing his body to attack if his teammate became unreasonable.

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**so... here's my first chapter complete... it might not be much, but i thought he explained what it needed to for now**

**just letting you know though, that i will be TRYING to bring out a new chapter per week, but my exams are coming up from just around the corner and i'm mostly doing this as stress release (that's why i apologize if it's a REALLY crappy story with the absolute worst outline...**

**until next time, bye story readers**


	2. Loud Noises

**Just letting you all know that i have decided to update weekly from now on... this is so i can write more of the story while you're waiting, and yes, this actually helps in the way of letting me get the story right before making it public, then needing to change it and bugging you all when it's been changed and the story no longer makes any sense...**

**anyway, enjoy the read :D**

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A loud bang was heard all throughout the Akatsuki base, shattering all peace present.

The name 'Kakazu' rang through the air at an earth-shattering level.

"Wasn't that Itachi?" Kisame asked Hidan.

"Oh great, what has Kakazu got himself into this time?" the albino replied, getting off his chair and heading towards the now noise-filled room.

* * *

"Itachi!" Kisame yelled, coming across the scene before the other Akatsuki member, "what happened?"

Itachi was in his ninja-wear, minus his Akatsuki cloak, which was now covering the half-naked girl he was trying to help get away from the monster the men called "teammate".

"He attacked the kunoichi, I had to stop him," came his reply as he passed Kisame out the doorway with Sakura unconscious in his arms. He knew she had been hit at least once during that brief, but destructive fight between the two males.

Kakazu's body stirred and Itachi knew there would be trouble, but they had all been told that the girl was off-limits to them. Hidan arrived as one of Kakazu's hearts replaced the now-destroyed heart that lay nestled in his body.

"Hidan, why don't you let him take his rage out on you, seeing as you can't die?" Kisame asked as he began to follow his partner, just in case his help was needed.

"Despite what you all may think, I don't actually **like** dying," Hidan yelled after their retreating forms.

"Then stop pissing me off!" Kakazu yelled as he stabbed his partner through the chest with one of Itachi's kunai that had been left behind.

* * *

"Itachi, where are you taking her?" Kisame asked, not bothering to hide the curiosity in his voice.

"I'm taking her away from that monster."

Kisame wasn't pleased by his partners' answer, but followed him regardless.

Itachi was very glad that either he had a loyal friend, or a curious partner.

* * *

Sakura didn't know where she was, but after what she had just experienced, or she presumed she had just experienced, either that was a dream, or she was dead.

Once again, she feigned sleep, not wanting any possible captor knowing she was now conscious.

She tried to feel out her surroundings, but only felt the soft cushion of what she assumed would be a make shift bed one of her captors had roughly put together so she could actually rest. The only problem with her theory though, was that what she assumed to be a bed was much too soft to be make-shift, or for a prisoner for that matter.

She moved her arms and legs around, pretending to be trying to find a more comfortable position in her sleep. Wherever her legs moved, they felt the same, soft surface beneath them. Her arms though hit something as they reached upward. It was even more soft than the surface upon which she lay.

_That must have been a dream. I mean, how could I have been captured by Hidan and Kakazu? And why would Kakazu want her anyway?_ She shivered internally at the thought of Kakazu touching her in real life.

_I bet I'm already late for my shift at the hospital, time to get up!_ She thought pleasantly as she opened her eyes and looked over to where her clock should be sitting, only to find one Itachi Uchiha sitting in a chair, arms crossed, face down, eyes closed.

Sakura let out a quick gasp at the surprise of waking up to his figure, and then her body went somewhat into shock as she realized that Kakazu had actually violated her and Itachi had burst into the room to save her.

Before Itachi could wake up and do anything more to her, she lay back down in what she could remember as her original position and feigned sleep once more, hoping she might actually succumb to any wisps of tiredness so that she could wake up back in Konoha.

"There's no point," Sakura instantly froze at the sound of his voice. "I know you're awake, Sakura."

She let out a sigh and prepared herself for the wrath of Itachi, only to have the tables turn when she found herself to be half-naked.

"What the hell happened?" she screamed at him as she sat straight up, keeping the blanket as close to her body as possible while trying to cover herself as best she could.

Itachi remained silent.

"Why the hell am I half-naked, Itachi?"

He remained silent once more.

Before she began to scream again, he began to answer her.

"Kakazu…" he paused, as if not knowing how to continue. She let him pause though, knowing what a good sign it was that the Uchiha was even talking.

"Kakazu tried to force himself upon you, but as I walked past, I knew something was not right, so I barged in and I found you in the state you are now," he nodded his head towards her body, indicating the state of her clothes.

There was silence between them for a moment, then Sakura spoke up.

"Thank you," in comparison to the screaming she had just been doing, her voice was much like a whisper when those words left her lips.

_'Thank you'. _The words were so foreign to his ears.

"Itachi?" she asked after several silent moments.

He answered by looking up at her.

"Where are we?"

"I thought you were informed when you were first brought here…"

"No, I meant 'where are we?'" she repeated, pointing around the near-empty room they were in.

"I have brought you to my bedroom."

Sakura paused for a moment, somewhat in shock.

"What?"

He didn't understand her reaction.

"This is one of the safest rooms in the entire base," he explained, holding his arms out, as if to showcase the room.

"Uhh… maybe for you, but…"

"Trust me when I say this, Sakura, no one would dare invade another member's personal area, no matter the reason."

"Then, why am **I** in here?"

"You're needed here, and I believe we can only use your help if there is a bond of trust between yourself and our members," _much unlike what Kakazu was attempting._

"Trust?" she accused, but he remained silent, unmoving from the position he had taken when she first woke. "You expect me to trust, not only you, he who killed his entire clan just to test his capabilities, but sickos like that freak that tried to force himself on me!"

"Sakura, if I had known sooner, I would have brought you here sooner, or at least to have a room I could easily protect you in."

Itachi finally stood from the chair and turned to leave the room. He opened the door and paused for a moment.

"In the box in the corner are clothes that Konan thought you would fit into. I'll leave you to change," with that, he left.

Sakura waited until the door clicked closed until she got out of the bed to scour through the box of clothes.

She tipped the clothes on the floor and found more than what she needed. All the clothes there were much like her regular ninja clothes. This 'Konan' Itachi talked about knew her taste well. _Must be gay._ She had to remember to thank him later.

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**i hope you enjoyed the chapter, though it would be amazing if you could get your thougths down in the form of a review so i know if i have to change the next couple of chapters of the story that i've written for your benefit**


	3. Sweet Escape

**I decided to update early because i'm going away this weekend, and i know i won't have internet, which means that i won't be able to update on time for you all**

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**just quickly, before the story starts, i would like to thank "moodymel" and "Masamune Uchiha" for reviews... made my day and made me want to write more for you all...**

**but anyway, here's the story...**

* * *

Itachi sat outside his bedroom with his eyes closed, waiting for Sakura to finish changing. He heard her beginning to pack the clothes back into the box.

She hesitated a moment before reacting the way he knew she would, he heard her footsteps cautiously closing in on his bedroom door.

He decided to wait to see what she would do, only opening his eyes as the door slowly opened and pink hair poked out from around the wooden door.

Obviously not seeing his slouched form against the wall, she deemed it worthy to exit the room. Her small hand curled around the edge of the door, opening it wider to allow her body enough room to exit.

Her foot was let out first, as if to test the water, Itachi just remained still, wanting to see her reaction to his still form against the wall.

She quickly let the rest of her body out of the room, leaving the door open as she prepared to run down the hall. As she turned, she saw Itachi's body and let out a scream.

Itachi smiled and let out a small laugh that sounded much like a scoff, but Sakura, once she had recovered, quickly ran in the other direction.

Itachi let out a sigh and stood and took off after her, down the hall.

"Sakura, Wait!" he yelled after her, knowing she wouldn't stop, but still hoping.

She spared a quick glance over her shoulder, checking the distance between the two of them. When she turned back she ran into a giant, Akatsuki cloak-wearing shark-man. She let out another scream at the surprise of the giant man, stopping dead in her tracks.

She looked to both directions, deciding which partner she would fare better against. On deciding the smaller of the two was the better choice, knowing that getting past Kisame would be harder as he took up more corridor space, Sakura took off in Itachi's direction.

Itachi, still running at her, didn't quite expect this and ran straight into her. They both toppled over, but Itachi landed on his face in a puff of smoke.

Itachi growled into the floor at being bested by such a simple ninja tactic. He looked up, still somewhat shocked at the fall, and saw Kisame just standing there.

"What are you doing? After her!" he screamed at the fish man who jumped over his partner to chase the pinkette down the hall.

* * *

Sensing her shadow clone dissipating, Sakura let out a laugh to herself.

_Honestly, how dumb could they be for falling for that? _

"What are you doing? After her!" she could hear Itachi's angered screams yelling at Kisame.

_Seriously, I thought they were supposed to be some of the best ninja in the world._

She laughed again, out loud this time.

"Sakuraaa!" came Itachi's yells from the direction her shadow clone had gone.

Sakura saw another door and came up with another idea. She created 2 more shadow clones to keep on the path down the long hall she ran through as she slipped into the room.

She chuckled at her plan, but cut it short, not wanting the two passing nukenin to hear the laughter. She pressed her body against the door, listening as the heavy footsteps of Kisame passed with Itachi's close by.

"Where'd she go?" she heard Kisame yell back to Itachi.

"I don't know, I can't see past you, you big shark!"

"That's not funny, Itachi!"

The 2 were still too close for her to let out the laughter she wanted to, so she had to force herself to cover up the sound with her hands.

"H… hello?" Sakura heard a feminine voice somewhere in the darkness of the room she was in and she blanched from shock.

"Sakura?" the voice sounded genuinely surprised, "is that you?"

Sakura couldn't help it, but her body betrayed her in letting out a scream. Although she was able to hold back the sound somewhat, as her hands were still covering her mouth from the laughter, sound was still made.

She had no intention of answering the voice, not knowing which Akatsuki member it was nor how dangerous they were.

She heard the soft thud of feet hitting the wooden floorboards.

"Sakura? Are you there?" the feminine voice asked again.

Again, Sakura remained quiet. The voice let out a sigh.

"Fine, I guess I'll have to find out myself."

Sakura was now literally frozen in place, completely unable to move, but she knew it wasn't because of her fear, she knew it was from something else. She could feel something around her body, it must have been what was holding her down.

She let out a gasp and the figure let out a slight chuckle that sounded much like a scoff.

"I told you I would find out, now stop fighting against my jutsu, there's no point," the voice said, all the while moving through the room.

Sakura found out where the figure was moving to when she saw the blinds open, letting in the  
bright moonlight.

"Ah… Sakura. So it **is** you. I see you like the clothes I picked out for you, I'm glad."

The figure made its way to Sakura, frightening her more than she already was. Once it was close enough to touch her, it reached out, but not to Sakura. It reached out to her side, then the room was flooded with light, revealing the figure to be a beautiful, blue-haired woman, also a black Akatsuki cloak with red clouds on it.

_'Which one is she, Itachi?' Sakura heard through her clones._

_'I don't know, you take that one and I'll take the other,' Itachi pointed to one of the Sakura clones, preparing to attack the other just as soon as Kisame attacked his, so they would be able to find out which was the real Sakura._

_With a small water jutsu, Kisame froze some water and pierced her leg with the icicle, knowing she would be able to heal it later if she were the real Sakura, but it wasn't, so the icicle flew through a puff of smoke and into the Akatsuki corridor wall._

The woman brought her hands together, releasing the jutsu she had placed on Sakura, relieving her of her confines.

"Sakura, why do you look so scared? I won't hurt you," the woman then hugged her frozen form.

_'Nowhere to run, now, Sakura,' Itachi teased her final clone, then pounced._

Sakura stiffened as she sensed her last shadow clone dissipate. _No more shadow clone distractions, and I'm stuck here. _Feeling the change in Sakura's form, the woman quickly pulled away, looking Sakura's form over.

"What's wrong?" she could see genuine worry in the woman's eyes.

All Sakura could do was let out an untranslatable sound.

The woman pulled her towards the bed, sitting her down on the soft surface that was void of blanket as the woman had just been resting there.

"Sakura, lie down, it's okay, just relax?"

"Wh… who… you?" was all Sakura could manage as she lay herself down.

The woman smiled and let out a small laugh, "I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself, I'm Konan."

"You?" **_This_**_ is Konan? I thought she was a gay man!_

"Hm?"

"N… nothing," she didn't want to offend any of the S-class criminals that made up the Akatsuki, knowing just how dangerous they could be, even for a skilled kunoichi such as herself.

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**i hope you guys are enjoying the story so far... it makes me happy to know what you're thinking about it, even if it's horrible, that only means i have to change the story**


	4. Scolded By A Deadly Kunoichi

**i would seriously like to thank reviewers, followers and favouriters when it comes to this story, you bring me motivation to keep writing, so pelase, keep 'em comin'**

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**So i thought i would give you guys an early update as to what's happening with Sakura and Itachi, seeing as my exams are coming up and story updating will be quite irregular... i hope you enjoy the chapter (and the rest of the story) and tell me what you think (if you want)**

* * *

Itachi let out a deep growl.

"In our own base, Kisame! We lost her, and now we can't find her! On top of losing her, we fell for her shadow clones! Again, Kisame! We fell for it a **second** time!" he let out a small sigh, then continued more quietly, "What are we going to do, Kisame?" Itachi had moved well past the point of freaking out.

Kisame was more than a little bit frightened at this point.

"How did we even get in this mess?" Itachi covered his face as he said this, as though he were ashamed.

The two of them heard a loud noise coming from back down the hall. They looked at each other, knowing it just had to be Sakura.

"That shifty little minx," Kisame said as he and Itachi ran towards the sound they had heard.

They were forced to stop as small pieces of paper encircled their bodies.

"Konan? What's the meaning of this?" Itachi practically yelled at her as she approached the two of them.

She kept on her path until she was within reaching distance. She then did what they hadn't expected her to do, she slapped them both.

"What the hell!" Kisame screamed, costing him another slap from the blue-haired woman.

"You idiots!" her voice was harsh, demanding authority.

The boys were both about to start their rebutle, but Konan stopped them with a finger and two words, "Shut. Up."

Their mouths closed instantly. Konan released her confinement jutsu.

"Follow me," she motioned with her finger as she walked down the hallway, away from the noise.

"But…" Itachi tried to argue with her orders, but came up short when more paper covered his mouth, rendering him incapable of speech.

Konan gave Kisame a death glare, threatening him not to talk either, and he took the hint.

They walked in silence for a minute, then Konan stopped and removed the jutsu from Itachi's mouth.

"I've moved the conversation further from my bedroom because I know it will lead to yelling and Sakura is currently in there, resting," the boys went to speak, but Konan death-glared them once more, "what have you done to her?"

"'What have we done to her?'!" Itachi screamed, "we did nothing! She was the one trying to escape! We were just trying to get her back but, argh," he clenched his fists through his hair in frustration, "she's just so irritating!"

Kisame remained silent.

"Itachi, I thought you were considered a genius in Konoha, what happened?"

Itachi gave her a death glare right back because of the comment.

"Not. Funny."

Both she and Kisame chuckled, but Kisame stopped when he felt the full-throttle of his partner's Sharingan. He somewhat cowered backwards as the glare lay solely on him.

Itachi's glare was broken when Konan spoke again.

"I understand the two of you wanting to keep her here, but be careful with her, she's still only a girl."

"I don't understand," Kisame said, hoping she would continue explaining.

Konan just glared at him, as if to say 'if you need to ask, you'll never know.'

"Have either of you actually explained to her why she's needed here?"

The men both looked at one another, then back to Konan, who looked as though she wanted to slap herself in the face for siding with such idiots. Instead she just sighed and looked down, as though they weren't even worth the glare.

"I'm sorry, Konan, I was waiting for you to recover to help me tell her. For now, I was hoping to start some form of trust between her and the Akatsuki members, but it's not like they're helping with it."

"Who do you mean by 'they'?"

Itachi looked down in disgust as he recalled Kakazu's actions towards Sakura. In seeing his partner's reaction, Kisame spoke up for him.

"Kakazu tried to force himself upon her, but Itachi saved her."

Konan was visibly touched by this. She knew Kakazu was both a monster and a pig, but she never knew he would have done that, especially to someone as important as Sakura, even if she wasn't important to him, he knew just how important she was to the rest of the Akatsuki.

Kisame could feel the anger radiating off the other two and felt at odds for not feeling even a partial amount of rage the other two felt. He felt relieved though, when Itachi spoke up and broke the silence.

"Konan, could I request that Sakura be placed in a room by my own?" Konan raised an eyebrow at his request.

"Uhh…" she was at a loss, not fully understanding the reason behind the request.

"It's so I can protect her easier if Kakazu plans to do with her what he wants again."

She could see the point he had, but she was thinking of having Sakura near her, the only other female ninja in the entire complex. She thought on it for a moment, until an obvious answer came to her.

"Go to Deidera and tell him to find a new room," the men looked somewhat confused as Deidera wasn't near Itachi's room, so Konan felt the need to explain to them.

"She needs a woman around, that's me, and seeing as you've become attached to her, I have no choice but to have you two in the spare room next to me and the room next to that, Deidera's room," the boys seemed to have caught on and were about to head off, when Konan added for them to talk to Deidera quietly, as Sakura was, hopefully, still resting.

With that, they walked off, heading back in the direction they had just come.

* * *

**heheh... bringing them closer... i do believe the word you're looking for is 'cheeky'**

**sorry if it's a bit slow (or seriously slow, like 10x slower than a snail or something) but it gets better (or, at least, i hope it does)**

**enjoy the next chapter when they come out, oh precious fans of this story**


	5. Not Again

******i have found the need to update early again because i feel bad that, during my exam period, i won't be able to due to 'hard studying', also known as 'writing more so i can update when exams are over'... i hope you all enjoy this chapter**

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******also, i almost added the next chapter instead of this one... oops**

* * *

"What's wrong, Itachi?" the shark-man asked.

Itachi remained silent for a moment before answering.

"It's Deidera."

"I'm not sure I follow," Kisame confessed.

"You know how he hates me. Even if this is to make Sakura feel more comfortable, I have my doubts about him going for it."

_Unless he leaves me the lovely gift of his clay throughout the room, only to have him blow it up later._

"Want me to get Konan to ask?"

"No!" Itachi couldn't have answered fast enough.

"Uhh…"

"Just, 'no', okay?"

With that, Kisame shut his mouth, not asking any further questions, but still wanting to know the answers, he especially wanted to know why Itachi didn't want Konan asking for him, knowing Deidera would be forced to listen to her, regardless of the order, but also, he still wanted to know why Konan had emphasized 'she's still only a girl'. He didn't understand, and it looked like Konan wouldn't answer him any time soon.

_Maybe it's best I just ask Sakura later, when we're on better terms._

He smiled at the thought, thinking he was a genius for thinking it, but didn't know how wrong he was just for needing to ask.

* * *

Sakura had only just woken to the sound of near-silent knocking, and had only just sat up in the bed Konan had let her use for the time being.

She told the knocker to come in as a sign that she was awake as it was probably Konan checking in on her.

The door opened slightly, letting some of the hallway light into the room, but it stopped at being enough light for someone to only just see into the room, but apparently, that was all they needed.

"Konan, if that's you, don't feel bothered about coming…" Sakura cut herself off as the door blew wide open and she saw the face of not Konan, but the disgusting Kakazu. She let out a gasp and tried frantically to come up with a plan of escape.

It took too long, she wasn't fast enough in her thinking and Kakazu ran straight across the room to the bed in which Sakura lay, pinning her down so she couldn't escape.

"Help! Help!" Sakura started screaming, not really knowing who would even want to help her in a base of criminals, but she saw shadows in the doorway. It looked like heads were popping around the doorway to see what was happening.

"Help me, please!" Sakura cried out to them, but they all laughed at her as Kakazu felt his way through her clothes once again, threatening to rip them at the seams.

He reached her perked breast and played with them, earning a gasp of pleasure that betrayed her body. In no way was she enjoying this, not even in the slightest, but her body was just doing what it had been told to do when this occurred.

Kakazu's face left her now tender breasts and worked its way down her body. Still holding her arms in place with one hand, he used his other to pull the waistband of the shorts she was wearing downwards, allowing him a full view of her naked crotch.

Sakura tried to pull her legs together, as that was all she was able to do to stop the 'show', but he was too strong for her. Instead, he brought his face closer to her body and let out his tongue.

Sakura was frozen with both fear and shock, her brain not knowing how to react.

His tongue dove deeper and Sakura's back arched up as her body reacted.

She looked to the doorway to see who was still laughing at her to find Itachi's lone figure, just standing there, mocking her with his unhelping presence. He just stood there, laughing and pointing at her.

Sakura could face what Kakazu was doing to her as she could at least try to block it out, but what Itachi was doing stung her heart. She didn't even understand why though, she had no feelings for Itachi, in fact, she hated him to her very core at what he had done to Sasuke, and now he was just standing there, mocking her with his laughter at the unpleasant acts being forced upon her.

The creature touching her body withdrew his tongue from her.

"Mmm… you taste good, Blossom," he said it in a tone that implied they had been lovers since the dawn of time, sending shivers down Sakura's back.

He moved his head away slightly, and Sakura felt relief somewhat wash over her. That is, until he thrust his fingers inside her.

She clenched her eyes shut and screamed at the pain it brought her. She tried to thrash about, out of his hold as he moved his hand back and forth, but her actions were hopeless.

That is, until the door of the room burst open and a figure ran to her, the feel of Kakazu suddenly gone, a firm grip on her both shoulders replacing it.

"Sakura!" the figure was yelling her name in a very familiar, very masculine voice.

She tried to push the figure away with one hand, not knowing what he would do to her, and tried to pull her short back up, to hide her naked body from him, but she couldn't find the seam.

She tried to sit up to find her waistband easier, but the figure's hold was in the way. She gathered chakra in her hand and pushed him away, sitting up when his presence had moved elsewhere in the room so she could find what that monster Kakazu had done with her shorts. She searched thoroughly around herself, even on the floor, with what little light the hallway provided, but found no traces of them. In fact, she found no traces of Kakazu either, just a small, dark, male figure on her floor where he had been pushed and now a giant shark-like creature peering in through her doorway.

She heard footsteps and a feminine voice screaming, "what's wrong? What's wrong? I'm coming, Sakura!"

She recognized the voice as Konan and was relieved to see her silhouette in the doorway, after coming the previous silhouette to 'move!'. She stepped into the room, leaned to the side slightly, and let light flood the room.

Sakura came upon the view of Konan rushing towards her, Kisame popping his head back into the room to check the situation and Itachi standing in the middle of the room, now rubbing his backside.

Sakura quickly remembered her shorts and searched frantically for them, only to find she was still wearing them.

Konan didn't sit on the bed, she just knealt slightly, asking Sakura what happened.

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**now that the chapter's over and still fresh in your minds, why don't you all tell me what you think about it... honestly, i would like to know, whether it's good, bad, just a reminder about updating, i don't care, just as long as it's sent via your computer (or phone) to mine**


	6. Understanding Reason

**i've just been reading through someone else's story and found that this whole time, i've been writing "kakazu" instead of "kakuzu"... sorry for those who found that out and had it bug them (and those who are now finding it and being bugged that i pointed it out), i'll change it from now on**

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**anyway, thanks to everyone for their support in either reviews, favourites, follows or even those who just read the story... you make me happy :D**

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"Sakura, what happened?"

Itachi saw Sakura's face turn from her legs to Konan's face. Something had happened, and it was in the intense fear showing on Sakura's face.

All he wanted to do was to reach out and comfort her, but he didn't know how to comfort someone, only kill and seriously injure.

Sakura's voice was heard, but only in incoherent mumbles, then incoherent sobs as she tried telling Konan what happened. Obviously, what happened to was horrible, but if she was going to be like this, no one would be able to understand what exactly it was that happened.

Itachi started to his partner, peeking into the room to try to grasp the situation when he barely made out his name through Sakura's sobs, forcing him to turn. He wanted to know why she had said his name, but found himself looking upon two kunoichi. The blue-haired woman looking at him with disgust and the pink-haired girl staring with an unknowable question on her face.

"What did you do to her, Itachi!" Konan all but screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Me!" Itachi was shocked, "I did nothing! I came to help her!"

"And what exactly does this 'help' entail?"

"Finding out why she's in the state she is! I did nothing to her! I came in and she was like this! Kisame witnessed everything, he's my alibi!"

Itachi turned to see Kisame 's frightened form. Obviously, he didn't want to get in the middle of this fight, but Itachi was right, they had only come in when they heard her scream.

"We were guarding her, Konan, from outside the room. Itachi only came in when he heard her scream," Kisame's scared voice sounded too quiet amongst the yelling that was happening between the other two.

Konan stared from Kisame to Itachi, back to Kisame then to Sakura.

"Is this true, Sakura?" her voice was quite the opposite of what it had just been. Sakura didn't answer, only buried herself in what she could find of Konan, her sobs muffled by Konan's comforting body.

"Shh…" Konan rubbed her back, urging the sobs out in hope it would help to soothe the weeping girl in her arms.

"Just let it all out, Sakura," she soothed, "I won't leave you."

Itachi and Kisame didn't know quite what to do, so when Konan turned to them, they took the hint and turned to wait outside for Konan.

Itachi was last to leave the room and hesitated before letting the door click closed.

He just wanted to comfort her. He didn't want her to be in the pain he saw she was obviously in. He sighed before setting himself down on the floor next to his partner.

"Think she'll be okay?"

"I don't know," Itachi answered honestly. _I mean, it's not like we even know what happened to her._

There was a moment of silence before Kisame broke it.

"You really care about her, don't you?"

Itachi didn't answer, all he did was stare at the door.

"Why?"

Silence again, but Kisame could see his partner had something he wanted to get out. He waited patiently, knowing that if he really wanted to answer, Itachi would, but when he was ready.

Moments passed until Itachi finally answered.

"She's my only hope, Kisame. I just…" he was still staring at the door, as though he wasn't talking. He finally turned to the shark-like features of his partner, "I need her to be okay, Kisame."

Kisame raised his arm to Itachi's head, ruffling his hair.

"Don't worry so much, we'll look out for her," he comforted his partner with the truth.

His eyes lightened somewhat, as did the rest of his face, "thank you, Kisame."

Itachi's face turned back to stare intently at the doorway and morphed back to its seemingly emotionless state.

* * *

_I'm not leaving you this time, Sakura,_ Konan thought as she watched over Sakura's sleeping body. She sighed, looking towards the door, knowing both Itachi was on the other side, Kisame helping him watch over her.

_No matter what happens, Sakura, do __**not**__ trust any of the Akatsuki members, not even Itachi, no matter what he says or does for you._

Konan heard a small sound and turned her attention back to Sakura, who was moving about in her sleep. She let out a low moan, reaching her arms up above her head.

_Wonder who __**she's**__ dreaming about,_ Konan laughed to herself, letting her emotions slip to her face for a moment, but only a moment.

Sakura moaned again, but this time it was more of a word than just a sound.

Konan waited several moments for Sakura to say the word again, to see if she could understand what it was she was saying, but the noise came out different. It sounded more scared than the last moan, but that was because it was more scared.

Sakura's breathing became more rapid, her arms retracted to unconsciously cover herself as her body formed the foetal position. From her mouth now came cries of 'no!' and 'get off me!'.

Konan stood and approached the girl, genuinely worried for her.

Sakura let out an 'ah!' of pain, loud enough for the two men outside the room to probably hear, and bit her lip. She must have been in a lot of pain in her dream as her lip started bleeding from the pressure her teeth had on it.

Sakura started screaming again, but it was more intense. There wasn't just one, short scream, it was many long screams.

Itachi burst in once more, Kisame close on his heels, while Konan rushed to Sakura, trying her hardest to wake her up.

She pulled Sakura to a sitting position and began shaking her body roughly.

"Sakura!" she screamed at her. "Sakura, wake up!"

Footsteps ran towards her position. She spared a glance at the person and saw the worry on Itachi's face. He moved Konan aside and took over for her.

"Sakura! Sakura, what's wrong?" he shook her almost violently, trying all he knew he could do to help.

"What happened?" came Kisame's voice from beside her, causing her to jump slightly.

"It's exactly as you said," Konan answered, not taking her eyes off of the two figures in front of her, "she just started… screaming."

Itachi let her body drop to the comfort of the bed, though she was obviously still in pain, and left her, pacing quickly across the room. When it seemed as though he knew what to do, he ran back across the room and picked her up again. This time though, he wrapped his arms around her. He was still saying her name, but it was barely audible.

Konan and Kisame watched as a small light appeared to be moving from Itachi to Sakura.

As the light appeared, the screaming died down until it came to a halt and Sakura opened her eyes, tears escaping her small, emerald eyes.

"I… Itachi?" Sakura asked the figure holding her body.

He pulled away to look at her and smiled, as though he were pleased his plan had worked.

"Sakura," he pulled her back into his arms. She hesitantly followed suit, bringing her arms around Itachi's body.

The other two ninja looked on as the two tightly embraced each other, until Itachi's arms fell and Sakura's face turned to theirs, horror painted over her usual complexion.

"Konan?"

She took a step forward, "what is it?"

Sakura didn't reply, only acted.

She pushed Itachi back off her and onto the bed so he could be on some sort of flat surface.

Konan knew Itachi illness was flaring up. Only 3 ninja, other than Itachi himself, knew he carried the illness with him.

"What can we do?" Kisame needed to know what he could do for his partner.

She placed her two fingers to his neck feeling for a pulse.

"Tell me, does he have any diseases?" she let her hands fill with chakra as she quickly examined his body.

"He does, but we don't know what it is exactly. He doesn't tell us."

Sakura let out a growl of anger at her patient for being such a stubborn man.

"Do you at least know what part of the body it has to do with?" she spared a quick glance at the two of them, then focused back on her work.

"I think it's his heart."

_Heart. Okay._ She moved her hands to survey the area around the heart.

Kisame was right, it was the heart.

She couldn't exactly tell what it was, but she could feel something there. It was pushing into Itachi's heart slightly, putting its work off-balance.

She changed the form of her chakra so it was able to destroy whatever it was that was in Itachi's chest, making sure not to harm any other part of him.

_Please let him be okay. Please, please __**please**__ let him be okay._

She breathed a silent sigh of relief. The longer the threat was in contact with her chakra, the weaker it became. It was as though it was dissipating under the pressure her chakra was providing. His breathing was now regular, as was his heartbeat.

"Itachi," she breathed out, recollecting her chakra back into her body to reserve what she had. Sakura smiled, she was glad the pressure on his heart was gone, but the moment was short-lived as Itachi started coughing out blood.

"Itachi!" Sakura tone read alarmed, but she knew Itachi's body was now okay, it was just doing what it knew it should be doing be ridding itself of the dead blood in Itachi's lungs.

Unfortunately for the others, they didn't know Itachi was okay because they weren't even basic medic-nins and, when the medic-nin who had just treated their friend sounded alarmed at her patient coughing up blood, they naturally stepped forward to see how they could help.

Sakura pushed them back and explained to them what was happening to Itachi. She told them he just needed a bit of time like this, then some rest. Konan agreed to leaving him there to rest, as Sakura put up a good point that Itachi shouldn't be moving about, even if he were to be carried, as Kisame had suggested.

Itachi began coughing again and, although the Akatsuki members knew he was okay and that it was good he was coughing up his own blood, they still weren't used to it. Sakura could feel the worry in their aura.

She knew Itachi was much better at feeling aura and that this feeling from his friends would more than likely slow his recovery down, so she sent them out. She stayed though, so she could watch over her newest patient.

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**so i can now focus on studying, i ahve decided to make this the last chapter for now, at least, until my exams are over (12th november). so either, the next chapterr will be up that day, or the day after... overall, i hope you enjoy yourselves with this chapter/story**


	7. A Simple Mistake

**i lied, i know, i just felt the need to share this with you though... it was too tempting to just let it sit there, all on its lonesone, not being read... so, here you are, the next installment of "taken"**

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Itachi woke slowly, feeling pain in his torso, but this pain was unusual to him. The pain he usually felt was much stronger than this and had negative feelings to it, as though his body knew there was something wrong with it, now there were only mere remnants of those feelings. His body felt as though it had never been having problems.

Itachi smiled at this, but didn't quite know what had brought these positive feelings on. He tried to remember back to before he was asleep when he heard a soft moan coming from inside the room he also found himself to be in.

His eyes shot open, Mangekyo Sharingan at the ready, only to find he was in Konan's room. The noise had presumably come from the lump of Sakura, quietly nestled on the chair next to the bed.

It was at that moment that he remembered wwhat had happened. The sight of that pink hair reminded him that Sakura was screaming, she had obviously been having a terrible nightmare from which she could not escape, no matter how hard he and Konan tried.

He remembered sending some of his chakra through to her body to revive her. It had worked, she had woken up, even recognized him, but his heart had fucked up big time. He couldn't remember anything after that, instead he just assumed that Sakura had healed him, seeing as neither Konan nor Kisame had any medical knowledge, and removed the problem he knew was there.

He uncovered himself and turned so his legs were hanging over the edge of the bed. He smiled at the sight of the beautiful woman in front of him, who had obviously worried enough about him to stay by his side as he recovered.

He made his way to her resting body to wake her so as to inform her of his consciousness. Standing before her, Itachi couldn't help but marvel at her beauty, even with the obvious signs of sleep deprivation on her face, he had never seen any woman that could compare, not even in the slightest. He chose to let her rest and instead bent down to softly kissed her cheek as thank you.

This caused Sakura to turn slightly towards where she had been kissed and let out a small moan through slightly upturned lips.

With that, he headed for the door so as not to disturb her during her well-deserved nap. Upon opening the door, he nearly found a giant shark-man resting himself against the opposite wall of the hallway and a blue-haired kunoichi pacing worriedly across the wooden floors of said hallway.

The two looked to Itachi in unison. Their eyes grew wide with joy and Kisame assaulted Itachi in a tight hug.

Itachi knew the noise they were making would wake them, so he yelled at them to stop, knowing one more loud voice wouldn't wake the tired girl in the room he was attempting to leave.

Kisame slowly brought his partner's feet back to the floor and took a step back, looking much more composed than he had only moments before. Now that he was able to see passed the giant's looming mass again, he was able to see Konan's facial features had taken a turn in the same direction.

Itachi motioned for them to move away from the room so they would be able to talk, as it seemed Kisame and Konan wanted to. They headed off while Itachi turned to rest his eyes upon the beautiful woman resting in the chair before flipping the light switch and silently closing the door.

He stood there for a moment, unable to hide the smile from his face. He took down the hall, uncaring of the reaction he would receive from the other two at the unusual emotion Itachi was displaying.

* * *

_Oh god! He kissed me!_

She waited a moment, allowing a new emotion to overcome her small frame.

_He kissed me!_

New emotions whirled.

_He kissed me!_

Finally, the negative emotions set in.

_It's not like he actually kissed me, it was just the cheek. Besides, I was asleep. Who would kiss someone else while they're asleep? _

Slightly more positive feelings.

_Still, no matter what the circumstances, he kissed me._

Embarrassment.

_I __**moaned**__! Why the hell would I do that! Who am I, Ino?_

A plan was set in motion.

_I will find Itachi and ask him why he did it._

Sakura, feeling very smug at her quickly formulated plan, cautiously took to the small line of light that was the bottom of the door. Once there, she opened the door wide.

_Of course, Itachi wouldn't be right outside the room! I bet he's embarrassed he did it. _

Worse negative feelings.

_Oh god! It runs in the Uchiha line! He ran away, didn't he?_

She heard voices down the hall. If she strained she recognized Konan and Kisame and…

_Itachi! Gotcha!_

She stormed off down the hall towards the voices, trying not to think about what she would say so she wouldn't wimp out and run back to Konan's soft bed.

* * *

"Itachi! Why didn't you tell us how bad it was?" it was unusual seeing such worry on the face of a shark.

"This is exactly why!"

"So you can die in front of me, without leaving me any way to help you, not even a hint?"

"No Kisame! So you wouldn't worry. Besides, that's why I asked leader if I could bring Sakura here," the other two had a slightly confused look on their face, "what?"

"Did you ask specifically for Sakura?"

Itachi heard more noise behind him. he knew Sakura had been standing there, listening to the three of them for the majority of the conversation, but he didn't want to let it on, he wanted to see what she would do.

"Yes."

Her breath hitched slightly.

"Why?"

"Because I know, out of all of Konoha's med-nins, Tsunade and Sakura are at an almost equal level in skill, but Tsunade would definitely have been much harder to have captured and more reluctant to help."

_Even though Tsunade knows exactly what happened the night of the Uchiha massacre, I know she would help me, but she wouldn't be caught with S-class criminals. Just imagine the shit she'd get from the elders about 'her image'. _

Itachi internally laughed at the mayhem that would indefinitely be caused through that scenario.

"I understand," Konan nodded.

"Was there anything else you wanted to know?"

"What exactly is it that happened to Sakura before you woke her up?"

"She was trapped in a Sharingan-induced nightmare," Itachi's face became serious once more, but his eyes were lost on an image far-off, one only he could see.

"Sharingan?"

"Yes," he paused, bringing his eyesight back into focus and onto Konan's face. "When you were watching her, was there ever a moment you weren't watching Sakura? Even for a moment?"

Konan thought on it for a moment and, as realization set in, her eyes were brought to look upon Itachi's hard face. She knew exactly what he was saying.

"How do we wake her?" Konan said.

"You won't be able to. Only those who possess the abilities of the Sharingan are able to."

"Leaving only you," Kisame stated more than asked.

"Exactly."

"Itachi, if what you're saying is the truth, Sakura isn't safe."

"I know."

"We should hurry back then," the men nodded and the small group headed back down the hall to the room they had left Sakura in.

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**any questions or queeries, just go right ahead and ask because, even though i now make a promise i wish to keep of NOT updating until the 12th/13th, i am still contactable by you lovely readers... **

**seriously, don't be shy, i actually like talking to you and getting to know what you think**


	8. Itachi, My Saviour

**once again, i KNOW i lied, but it's for both yours and my benefit... i put this chapter up in celebration that my first exam is OVER! WOOOOOHH! NO MORE ENGLISH! so excited! 1 down, 5 to go! besides, it's thursday, the day i am now dedicating to updating...**

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**so, this is the shortest chapter so far BUT i hope you enjoy, so read on...**

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_I'm in danger?_

Sakura ran from the group before they could discover her eavesdropping.

There was an almost silent knock on the door. Sakura had been expecting it, but she jumped regardless. She remained silent, somewhat hoping the person on the other side of the door would leave. They didn't, which was expected, but she remained motionless as the door slowly creaked open.

"Sakura?" came the feminine voice of Konan from the gap leading to the hallway. If Sakura hadn't heard the conversation she had just had, she wouldn't have been able to hear the slight fear audible in the kunoichi's voice

She didn't move.

The light gap opened further, revealing Itachi's figure and Kisame's head popping around the corner to gaze into the room.

"Sakura?" came the Uchiha's smooth voice. Sakura flinched slightly.

_How can he sound so calm after what they were just talking about?_

In her peripherals, Sakura could see Itachi lean over and whisper something to Konan, but couldn't hear what it was, even when she sent chakra to her ear, a trick she had seen Kiba use for his smell.

Konan nodded though. She and Kisame left the doorway and moved to the opposite wall, Konan leaning against it, Kisame sitting against it, leaving Itachi alone in the doorway.

He pushed the door wide enough to allow himself room to fit through the gap, then closed it behind himself.

_Is he here to tell me what I already know?_

He sat before Sakura on the bed.

"Sakura?"

"Go away," her response was barely a whisper.

He didn't move. She looked up to face him, knowing he wouldn't leave.

"What do you want?"

"Which parts did you hear?"

She hoped Itachi didn't hear her gasp or see her eyes widen but, seeing as he was an Uchiha, he was bound to noticed, not that he would let on.

"You… you knew I was there?"

He merely nodded in response.

Her eyes fell to the floor in concentration. She had questions for him, but she didn't know which to ask first.

"Thank you for healing me, Sakura."

She found she was unable to find the words she wanted to say in her throat. It was as though they were caught.

_What is this? Why can't I talk? Did something happen to me?_

She began shaking from the fear of the possibility that she

"There's no need to fret, you should be immune for the time being."

_'Time being'? Meaning what?_

"I don't… I don't understand," she looked back up to his face.

He remained silent for a moment, as if gathering his thoughts.

"To pull you out of the nightmare, I had to push my own chakra into your body. Until that chakra leaves your body, you will be free of these nightmares."

"H…how long will that take?"

"About a month, but as long as you continue feeding on my chakra before the time is up, you will remain safe from these nightmares."

Silence ensued.

_I have to stick with Itachi now._

The she asked the question that had been plaguing her mind, "who is it?"

More silence

"Itachi, tell me!" she said in the loudest voice she could muster, only to have it come out as her normal voice.

"It's…" a pause, "you don't need to know."

"What? No! Tell me!" her voice was getting it's volume back.

"You just need to make sure you stick close with me so I can protect you easily."

"No!"

_If he won't give me any reason, I won't do what he tells me to._

"Sakura! You'll do this! If anything, **this** you will do!"

"Why?"

He merely stared at her.

"Why do I have to do as you say, when you won't even answer my questions."

He said nothing. Only stood and took his leave.

Sakura stood from the chair, as though it would help her to get her point across to him.

"Hey! I asked you a question! Come back here!" she screamed at him, but it did nothing to stop or even slow him. The door clicked closed and she sat back down, as though exhaustion had just washed over her.

* * *

_I can't tell her, she wouldn't understand,_ he thought as the two new faces greeted him.

"What happened?" Kisame's face had asked the question, but Konan voiced it.

Itachi focused all of his attention to Konan.

"She will be moved to the next room over, as will I."

She nodded, "I will inform Deidera, then."

"No!" the word stopped Konan dead in her tracks.

"What then?"

"Like I said, she will be moved to the next room over, as will I," he repeated.

"You can't be serious?" Kisame spoke up.

Itachi said no words, only stared the shark-man down.

"Alright, then," Kisame stalked off, heading for Itachi's room to gather his belongings. "The man's insane!" he said under his breath, but Itachi still heard it and internally laughed.

"Itachi, explain yourself."

"Konan, the fact of the matter is that I don't trust her to be alone. I need to keep an eye on her. For now at least, or until she learns to trust us."

"Forcing her to share a room," Konan's voice was filled with shock, "and with a male non-the-less!"

"I would be more than happy to leave her to you, Konan, but the fact of the matter is that only Sharingan can defeat Sharingan, especially when both sides have power like ours."

Konan lay her hand over her face, as if to hide it while she collected her thoughts.

Finally, she sighed deeply and took her hand away. "Fine! Do as you will, but if she comes to me that you've done anything, and I mean **any**thing, to her, I will make it so you can never have a lovely thought again. Got it?"

Although Itachi was quite afraid of this side of Konan, he kept his emotionless façade going.

* * *

**oh god! i just HAD to get them closer together somehow, but this... this is pure evil for the dirty minded (mwahahah)**

**anyway, tell me your thoughts on the matter**


	9. Roommates

**new chapter is up a day early as i couldn't wait... also, lemon has been written, but not for this chapter... actually, it's in the chapter i've just written and i'm a couple of chapters ahead... PREPARE YOURSELVES!**

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**wow! this is the longest chapter so far at nearly 2,500 words for the story part... i feel acomplished, but if the chapter just drags on, i'll redo it before i put the next chapter up, so i can fix it up and make sure it makes sense when put together**

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_One week. _

_In the week that Itachi and I have been roomed together, nothing of interest has happened really, although, that __**could**__ be because he pretty much won't even let me leave the room without 'holding his hand'. And the first time, he stuck so close that we pretty much were._

_I swear! He's more annoying than Naruto. I ask him about the 'danger' that I'm in, but he won't tell me __**anything**__! Argh! It's not like I'm some child or emotionally unstable that can't handle bad news. I don't understand why he won't tell me._

_To be honest, the best part about sharing a room with Itachi is when he gets back from his showers. Let me be the one to say, he is one __**fine**__ male, even for a shinobi he's hot! I like to think that it's best to see him at night though, that way he finds his way to fame in the best kind of dreams, although they have been happening more and more often and they've become more intense with each night._

_Speaking of 'Itachi' though, I seem to be needing a little bit of 'private time' to myself. Or this could get really awkward between the two of us._

"Itachi?" Sakura called from her bed across the room to Itachi's back, resting on his own, but there came no response. She knew he was feigning sleep, even though he was so good at it. She knew because this would happen every night and after Sakura had gone to sleep, or pretended to, Itachi would rise from his feigned sleep and watch over her for the night.

Sometimes she would move about in her feigned sleep to see how Itachi would react. It was always the same. He would jump from his bed and hover over what he thought was Sakura's sleeping form, even after she stopped moving about. By the time he moved away, she had actually fallen asleep, having grown too tired from relaxing in the same position, waiting for him to return to his own bed.

She sat up in her bed, kicking her legs out from under the blanket. She saw Itachi had moved slightly. If she were anyone else, she wouldn't have noticed, but she had been staring at Itachi's stone-like form.

Her feet hit the floor and she acted as though she hadn't even noticed his interest in her movement. Her eyes quickly looked over her body, making sure she was decent for the eyes she knew would follow her.

She made her way out the door, once she deemed her appearance worthy, and down to the bathroom, knowing those red eyes were following her every movement.

Of course, she was used to it by now, having been forcibly paired up with Itachi for a week now, much to her dismay.

* * *

_"Why can't I just stay in my own room?"_

_"Because we won't be able to protect you properly if you're on your own," Sakura let out a frustrated growl at Itachi's answer._

_"Then at least let me pair up with Konan, seeing as we're both girls and all."_

_Itachi stopped walking, his belongings in his arms, and turned to face her, eyes glaring at her with such intensity._

_"No," he continued walking to their new room._

_Another growl left Sakura's mouth._

_"Why not? I mean, why do I have to pair up with __**you**__?"_

_"Because I am more than capable of protecting you."_

_"What about everyone else? Can't __**they**__ protect me?"_

_Itachi remained silent, choosing to ignore Sakura._

_"Why can't you just let me go back to Konoha? I've already healed you, what more do you want from me?"_

_Itachi continued to ignore her, resulting in Sakura's rage to show as her chakra-filled hand made its way through the door she was passing._

_Itachi snickered to himself as he knew Sakura had made a hole in the door, Deidera's door. If Sakura kept doing things like this, he would love to keep her around._

* * *

Although he found it hilarious, because it was, Deidera assumed Itachi had put Sakura up to the door smashing, which had made him hate Itachi even more. He didn't mind though, and Kakuzu refused to cough up the money for repairs or a replacement saying that Deidera shouldn't have broken his door in the first place.

After assaulting Sakura, Kakuzu had learnt not to go near Sakura and to make sure he stayed well on Itachi's better side if he wanted to keep all 5 of his hearts intact. Itachi's next method of torture would be to have Hidan talk even more than usual and to request a move either closer to or in his partner's room.

Leader knew just how annoying Hidan could be, anyone who came into contact with him did, and he would graciously accept any proposal, to an extent, he brought forth just to rid himself of the infuriating albino as fast as he could.

* * *

Itachi listened waited outside the bathroom. He heard water running, signalling Sakura finishing up in there. He let his clone hide in one of the doorways so Sakura wouldn't spot him.

She exited the bathroom looking more fresh than when she entered.

_She looks beautiful._

A small smile found its way to his lips.

He followed her back to the room, only several meters from the bathroom, and, seeing as she was safe, allowed his shadow clone to dissipate in a puff of smoke.

Itachi's real body remained in its feigned sleep on his bed in the room, listening to Sakura as she made her way back to her own bed.

He was awaiting the tell-tale signs that showed him she was actually sleeping, not just pretending, as he did. Within minutes, the signs were there, the barely audible snores. The small sounds made Itachi smile once again.

He never could sleep, he was always alert, his body checking for any kind of threat, no matter how tired he was, but during this past week, he had grown accustomed to the small noises she made while she slept.

They were only ever small, never anything he felt the need to worry about, but instead, he found himself being comforted by them. He felt more rested in the past week than any other since he had joined the Akatsuki fold.

The only time he found himself actually watching over her, and not just listening, was when she would moan in her sleep.

_I wonder who that's about,_ he smiled to himself.

She was doing this more and more as the days they spent together went by and Itachi was starting to get the wrong idea.

_I mean, she only sees 3 of the Akatsuki members, including myself, and I'm pretty sure it's __**not**__ Konan or Kisame, seeing as he's looks like a fricken __**shark**__ and she's well… a __**she**__. Unless Sakura swings that way._

He sighed and flipped over to his back, bringing his arms to rest behind his head.

_I'm sure either Kisame would be over the moon about it, Konan, I'm not too sure about, but… it's just that… oh, I don't know._

He flipped again, this time facing Sakura's sleeping form.

_Look at her, even when she's asleep and completely unaware, she's so beautiful. How could anyone not want to be a part of her world, just to be that much closer to her. The only person I know __**stupid**__ enough to remove themselves from her world is my foolish little brother._

Memories from the night of the Uchiha massacre flowed through his mind. He clenched his eyes shut and raised his hands to cover them, as though that would possibly help to block out the images running through his mind.

_I must have seriously messed that boy up. The last time I saw him __**definitely**__ didn't help, what with me reminding him of it all._

He flipped back to lying face-up, hands still covering his eyes.

_I just… I don't know what to do anymore. There's nothing I can do to help Sasuke now, he's far too gone for anything I could possibly offer. As for Sakura, I'm sure the more time she spends here with these messed up people, the more messed up she'll get, not like the time she's spent her hasn't damaged her enough as is._

He let out a regretful sigh, slamming his arms down by his sides in frustration.

_I need to get her out of here,_ he paused in his thinking,_ but I need to keep her away from Madara. I don't know what the hell that sick bastard wants with Sakura, but I won't let him get near her. As messed up as she would get with any of the other Akatsuki members, she would be on a completely different level of 'messed up' in the company of that sicko._

He heard her move beneath the covers and turned his head to look over.

_She's just changing positions, it's not anything, calm down,_ he assured himself.

He lay still, just watching her turn her back to him then fall silent with sleep once again.

_So beautiful,_ he repeated to himself.

"Mmhm," he heard coming from her direction.

_So it begins,_ he silently laughed, hoping to gather more information on whoever it was that was doing this to her.

As he watched and listened, he noticed that this was more than she had done the previous few nights. Her moans were somewhat louder and her body was moving as though someone was there, holding on to her, but he knew there was no one but him there.

"Ee…" she moaned, as those trying to make out words.

_Yes! I'll finally know!_

"Eat…"

_'Eat'? Don't tell me she's one of those people that get the munchies or something._

His thoughts momentarily turned to the Akimichi clan and he shuddered at the thought of Sakura eating like they did, then he thought back over the days she had been in the Akatsuki base and he realized how **little** she'd eaten.

"It… achi," her words broke him from his thoughts and he glared at her through the darkness of the room.

_Me! These past few nights have been about __**me**__!_

"Mm… Itachi," she moved her hand from where it had been resting under her head and pushed it down.

Itachi gulped.

As she did so, she pulled the blanket down with her, uncovering the thin top she had had to borrow from him to sleep in, seeing as she had no clothes of her own as there was no time for any kind of packing to occur when she had been taken.

He was lucky enough though that her hand rested on her stomach, rubbing it slightly.

_Maybe she is just hungry,_ he hoped, knowing it wasn't true.

Her hand pushed against her skin, moving back up her body and stopping when it came to her well-rounded breasts.

"Mmm.. Itachi, that feels good," she was talking about her own hand on her own body.

_Sakura, stop this!_

At his thoughts, she only seemed to rub harder and, even through the darkness, Itachi could see her nipples hardening.

_Maybe it's __**not**__ the best idea to be watching her right now._

For several moments, he found himself unable to move, only to watch this beautiful woman moaning his name.

She let out a hiss of pleasure as she pinched her nipple between her two fingers, snapping Itachi out of his paralysis.

As fast as he could, Itachi threw the blanket off himself and ran to the door. He let it swing open and rushed out, pulling it quickly behind himself then slowing it to the end, so as not to wake the girl he found himself running from.

He felt caught.

His inner Uchiha was telling him to stay out here, to leave the poor girl to her imagination, but his lower Uchiha was telling him to rush back in to take her and do all the dirty things that were now pushing themselves to the front of his thoughts, and it was as prepared as ever for him to do so.

He was stuck, holding on to the handle, making his decision.

_Itachi! You can __**not**__ do this! _

This final thought had him, still hesitantly, releasing the handle and backing up. He stopped only when his back hit the wall behind him, which he slumped down against.

_What do I do? What do I do? _He kept repeated the question, as though it were a mantra.

He looked to Konan's door, not too far away.

_What would Konan do?_

Then he had it. He stood and, walking as close to the opposite wall as possible, to make sure he stayed away from his own room's entrance, he made his way to Konan's.

_She'll know what to do, she'll know __**exactly**__ what to do._

He lightly knocked on the door so as to see if she were awake or not. His reply came as the latter, so he pushed the handle down and slowly opened the door.

"Konan?" he whispered as loud as possible.

He saw her figure roll in the darkness and let out a slight moan, not helping his inner Uchiha win any sort of battle with his lower.

Her kunai pouch was sitting on the table next to the now opening doorway in which Itachi stood. He grabbed one of the kunai and, not wanting to be near her when she woke, threw the kunai, aiming above her head.

Konan sat straight up and threw the kunai she had hidden beneath her pillow in the general direction of the offending kunai that was now stuck to the backboard of her bed. Itachi had seen this coming and quickly dodged the kunai aiming for his general area of the room.

He flipped the switch to the room and flooded it with light, causing both of them to squint at the sudden brightness. After several moments, they felt they were both ready to face the light of the room. Itachi opened his eyes to find a new kunai in Konan's hands, whereas she opened her eyes to find a fellow Akatsuki member, confusing her all the more.

"Itachi?" she still had to squint, but he made it easier by pulling a chair up beside her bed. "What are you doing in here?" she sounded half asleep, half outraged that he even had the nerve to not only come in, but to come in while she was sleeping and wake her in such a horrible way.

"Konan," his tone was quite serious, "I need your help."

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**hahah! poor itachi... i guess it serves him right for feeling the need to share a room with a beautiful pink-haired kunoichi such as sakura**


	10. Seeking What's Needed

**WOOOOOH! NO MORE EXAMS! i have now, officially, finished year 12... WOOOOOOOOH! so excited :D **

**as a reward to everyone, i am updating early again... really hope you guys enjoy the new chapter**

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"Konan, I need your help."

She sat up, waking herself up with the worrying thoughts that ran through her head.

"What is it?" her voice was just as serious as his was.

"It's Sakura," he paused for a moment, but that moment was all she needed to start freaking out about her new friend.

"What happened?" she began as she made her way out from under the covers, but Itachi's hands found her shoulders and they held her back.

"She's fine."

"Then what?" there was still worry in her voice.

"I seem to be caught in a situation and I don't know how to react to it," he was avoiding eye contact with her, a bit embarrassed at what he was about to tell the woman.

"What kind of 'situation', Itachi?" her voice had turned protective, her thoughts turning to the worst possibilities.

"No, no! I've done nothing! It's her!" he defended himself, knowing that what Konan was thinking, his lower Uchiha wanted.

"Itachi, whatever it is you've done to her, do **not** blame her for it!" she scolded.

"Konan!" his voice was serious, stopping the woman in the path she was heading down.

She waited a moment, "tell me then, what happened?"

"Konan, she's been…" his mouth was trying to form the words, but he was in a rut, halfway between not wanting to tell her and not being able to tell her out of embarrassment.

"What is it?" she was more serious now.

He didn't know how to tell her. He looked up to her face, but that made it all the more harder to tell her.

He looked straight back down.

_The sooner I tell her, the faster I can get this over and done with._

"I… she…" it was still hard for him.

"Just spit it out Itachi!"

That's exactly what he did.

"I can't help that she's so beautiful and now she makes it harder for me by moaning my name and touching herself!" after realizing he had just confessed **everything**, his eyes clenched tight, not wanting to face the kunoichi.

_Oh god! Why did I have to say that much? _

He heard unusual noises coming from Konan's direction and, when he looked to see what it was, found her trying to cover up her laugh.

He stared, open-mouthed at the woman, unbelieving of her reaction.

She saw how his expression changed and tried harder not to laugh, attempting at an apology between hysterical breaths.

"This is **not** funny, Konan! It's a serious problem for me!"

He glared furiously at her and she got the hint to stop laughing.

"Okay, so explain to me once more, what is it?" he stared for a moment, "I'm not going to laugh this time."

He was quiet for a moment more, but she remained quiet this time, understanding that he was gathering his thoughts, figuring out how to put what he needed to say.

"Konan…" he paused, "I… I…"

"Take your time, Itachi," Konan looked towards the floor, as though she were giving him some form of privacy.

_This must be hard for him, pushing all emotions away, and then Sakura is just… there, pushing him against what he knows._

"I just… don't know," there was an unusual sound coming from Itachi. She looked up to him and found his cheeks were wet.

"Itachi?"

"I just don't know, Konan," he wiped his hand across his cheek, attempting to remove the evidence of his weakness.

Konan stepped forward and pulled him to a comforting embrace, allowing him to let his emotions out.

"She's just… so…" he sobbed into her shirt.

He pulled away quickly, looking to Konan's eyes.

"Konan, I can't have him hurt her. I don't know what I'd do if…" his sobs broke out once more.

"Itachi, why don't you stay here tonight, and I'll watch over her? Does that sound okay?"

"N… no! I can't… I can't leave her! He'll come back! Konan, I can't! He wants her, to torture me! I just… I just know it! I can't do it!"

"Itachi!" her voice was raised, commanding respect, "you won't do anyone any good like this! Stay here, and I will watch over her tonight."

He didn't look convinced of this plan.

"Itachi, these walls are paper thin, you can hear **everything**."

Tears stopped flowing down his handsome face and the expression changed from one that was unsure to one of agreement.

She saw the change in his expression and stood to leave, but before she could take a step, he had grabbed her wrist.

Without words, he stood and left the room first, Konan close behind.

He silently pushed the handle down, letting the door slowly creak open before them.

As soon as the door was open, Konan knew **exactly** what he had been talking about.

"Mmm… 'tachi… more." Konan moved away from the so that if her laughter escaped her, it wouldn't wake Sakura up, as she knew it would.

She turned back once she knew she had a firm grip on the laughter trying to escape her grasp and saw Itachi returning to her bedroom.

_Poor guy._

She walked to the room shared by the 2 shinobi, trying to block the tired moans coming from the unconscious occupant of the other bed.

"Mmm… so good… keep going…"

Unable to block the sound of her fellow kunoichi out, Konan sighed and made her way to Itachi's bed.

She sat on the edge and, for a moment, watched Sakura writhe on her own bed as 'Itachi' did the sweetest things to her.

_Lucky girl, though,_ Konan laughed to herself and lay down, resting her head so she was still able to keep an eye on Sakura, just in case anything were to happen during the night, but her eyes were closing themselves, no matter how hard she tried to keep them open.

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**uhh... so... yeah... anything thoughts?**


	11. The Akatsuki's Little Joke

**so now that i have all this free time, due to not having school anymore, i have the ability to write as much and as often as i please... it's a good feeling... actually, it's the BEST feeling**

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**anyway, here's the new chapter, so enjoy it**

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"Good morning, sleepy head," came a sweet and gentle female voice.

Sakura, being too tired still, replied with a quick groan as she stretched.

"Do you ever sleep, Itachi?"

"Well, if I were Itachi, I would know, wouldn't I?" Sakura's eyes shot open at that.

She found herself gazing over at Itachi's bed and, instead of finding Itachi, she found the kunoichi next door, sitting on his bed.

She sat straight up.

"Konan! I'm so sorry, I thought you were…"

"It's okay, Sakura," she smiled, "it's not like you knew."

Her face slowly turned from one of shock to one of confusion.

"Wh… where's Itachi?"

Konan's smile grew.

"He's resting next door."

Sakura took that in the wrong way and rushed out of the room to the one she knew she would find Itachi in.

She reached the room within seconds and slammed the door open, coming across the sight of one Uchiha sitting straight up from fright. Sakura ran to him.

"Itachi!"she searched his body for anything that might be wrong.

He, on the other hand, was completely stunned.

"What happened?" she yelled at Konan who had raced after her, trying to stop her.

"Sa… Sakura?" Itachi eyes were wide and he had barely managed her name as he tried to come to terms with what was happening around him.

"Itachi," she looked directly in his eyes, "where are you hurt?"

"Hurt?" his confused voice turned towards Konan who just smiled at the scene.

"Yes! Where?" her voice was impatient.

"Sakura…" she snapped her head to the smiling woman that called to her. She was leaning against the door frame, trying to keep herself from bursting out in laughter.

Seeing the restraint Konan was clearly lacking, Sakura yelled, "there's nothing funny about this, Konan!"

It was then that Itachi burst out in laughter, shocking both Sakura and Konan.

_Clearly, this must be some sort of Akatsuki in-joke._

Sakura stood from Itachi's side and stormed back to her own bedroom, only making the laughter increase as Konan joined in.

As the laughter died down, Itachi rubbed his eyes from the tears that had formed due to Sakura's actions.

"So…" he tried between the slight amount of laughter he tried to push away, "what just happened?"

Konan tried her hardest to stop laughing, but found she couldn't as she looked to Itachi once more, only forcing up for laughter.

"Konan," Itachi's voice was more serious as he stared the kunoichi down, helping drive the laughter away.

"She woke up with me there and when I told her you were in here resting, I assume she came to the conclusion that you had been hurt."

Itachi just smiled.

"Better go sort things out," he jumped out of the bed and made for the door, Konan slightly ahead of him.

"Uh… maybe I better do this alone," Konan understood from his nervous tone what he meant and let him be.

"You didn't mess up my sheets, did you?" she called after him.

He turned back, while still walking, to answer with, "not that I know of," then turned back on his path to his own room.

* * *

When she reached the bedroom, she slammed the door shut and let her body fall to her bed, lying so her back was facing away from the doorway.

_There's nothing funny about this, just because I'm Akatsuki. _

She paused in her thoughts for a moment.

_Oh god! I'm jealous of the Akatsuki! I'm actually having jealous thoughts of those that are a part of the Akatsuki!_

She covered her face with her hands.

_What has my life come to?_

She sighed.

The door slowly squeaked open and Sakura pulled her hands closer to her face, not wanting any part of it visible to the new person in her room, especially not after that joke they pulled on her.

"Sakura?" came Itachi's soothing voice.

"Go away, Itachi!" she said, monotonously, pulling her hands back down so he could clearly hear, but leaving her eyes tightly closed.

But he didn't. Instead, she heard him coming towards her.

"I said, 'go away'!"

He sat down beside her on the bed.

"This isn't you going away, this is the complete opposite."

"Sakura," he paused, gathering his thoughts, "I'm sorry about that. It's just…" he stopped, not knowing how exactly to go on.

"'It's just' what?" she gave up on not seeing him, sitting up straight to look him straight in the eye, only to be pushed back down by his hands against her shoulders.

"I… Itachi, what are you doing?" she tried to push against him, but he held firm.

"After seeing you last night," he paused, reliving the moment, "I couldn't find it in myself to be near you anymore."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He drew himself closer to her, stopping beside her ear.

"It means 'I like it when you touch yourself for me,' Sakura."

Her voice was spoken in such a seductive tone, but Sakura was only thinking, _Touch myself? For him? When? He's lying! I did no such thing! Not so he could see, anyway! _

Then a thought occurred to her.

_Oh god! Has he been watching me even in the bathroom! What kind of sicko is…_

Her thoughts where interrupted when Itachi gently kissed her neck, forcing a moan out.

She felt him smile against her neck as he continued on a path down her neck.

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**so... now that you've read my work, review it... tell me what to fix to make it better please?**


	12. Getting What You Want

**the day has finally come for me to update (which also means that naruto is on tonight)... WOOH! enjoy, loyal readers**

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Her thoughts where interrupted when Itachi gently kissed her neck, forcing a moan out.

She felt him smile against her neck as he continued on a path down her neck.

This particular shirt of his she wore had lace draw-strings at the neckline where it parted to show his muscular chest. On her though, it was more than enticing, tempting him the entire time they had been in the same room to tear the strings away from her and taste her creamy skin.

Now though, he had the power to do so, and that was exactly what he did, slowly pulling the strings loose. The more open the shirt became, the further down he kissed on her body until there was no more string to undo, stopping his trail of kisses at the point where her cleavage began.

He pulled the shirt downwards, not caring if it stretched, to uncover more of her bare breast to tease her with causing her to arch into him, giving him better access of the breast he had turned his ministrations towards.

She let out another long moan of satisfaction, pushing her hands through his hair, grazing her nails against the pale skin.

He slowly moved his hands further down her body, experiencing every inch of her with such intensity, stopping when he reached the hem of the shirt she wore. He worked his way back up her body beneath the shirt, pulling it along with his hands.

He reached her breast and, knowing he had found what he wanted, pulled his face away and moved to her mouth, smiling all the while.

Before he moved his face to meet with hers though, he studied her face.

"Itachi?" she asked quite breathlessly, but oh so alluring. "What is it?"

His smile widened and his face slightly closed the space between them.

"I just… want to remember this moment for as long as I live," with that, he completely closed the distance in a tender kiss, allowing her to warm up to him.

She moaned into his mouth, causing him to pull back and smile at her. He took the opportunity to raise the shirt up and over her head, relieving a full view of her upper-body.

He sat up, allowing him a better view of her. He wanted to burn her beautiful image to his memory, but she, on the other hand, felt slightly uncomfortable with being bare-breasted in front of him and attempted to hide away from his eye sight using her arms and what little of the blanket she could flip over to cover herself with.

"Why do you hide, Sakura?"

She looked at him as though he had just asked a question Naruto would ask in any serious conversation.

"I just… I'm not used to this," she motioned with her hand to what they were doing, "sort of thing."

_That can't be right. Sakura can't be… a virgin. How can the men of Konoha not have even tried this with her?_ Although he was outrageously relieved that he wasn't tasting another man's seconds. He was overly joyous that he would claim her before any other man.

"Sakura, I'm prepared to wait for you," he said, moving to get up, but she grabbed onto his shirt, restraining his movements.

Itachi looked back at to her, even though she had averted her gaze from his.

"I… I said I wasn't used to this," their eyes met once again, "not that I didn't want it."

"As much as I want you right now, I don't want to push anything on you. I will wait."

But she sat up and pulled his face towards hers, forcing upon him a heated kiss, one she didn't know she could create.

She pulled away and repeated herself, "…not that I didn't want it," with a wide smile

He continued on from where he had left off, removing the shirt he wore. He couldn't help but notice how Sakura gazed at his torso, as though she had never seen a male's body before, but he knew better, seeing as ninja were rarely ever female, leading to the majority of teams with either one or no female members.

Her hands followed her eyes as they discovered the muscles hidden beneath the regular black shirt he wore that did nothing positive for his image.

As her hands explored their way up his body, Itachi slowly removed the blanket she had hurriedly wrapped around herself, at a pace she would easily be able to stop if she grew too uncomfortable. He successfully deblanketed her without any interruptions on her part, revealing the smooth and creamy skin she had tried to hide from him.

Her hands finally stopped at his shoulders, but her eyes kept on their path, only stopping when they reached his onyx eyes.

She pulled herself towards him, closing the space between them once more, but they were stopped just before their faces met.

"Itachi?"

The look on his face said nothing but desire, nothing but want, and yet he had been the one to stop her movements.

"Are you sure this is what you want, Sakura?"

She paused for a moment, a smile taking over her features.

"I know I haven't ever wanted something this way before."

With that, Itachi pushed her back down to the soft surface of the bed. When she met with it, her hands were pushed above her head and her lips were taken over by a heated kiss as he brought his body down to hers.

His hands started down the length of her body, stopping briefly only as they parted for breath and he moved his ministrations to her neck once again.

His hands slid from hers and down her arms, making their way down the length of her body. As he did so, her hands wrapped themselves around his torso. One hand ending in his long hair, the other at the small of his back.

"Nn… 'tachi," she moaned out as his hands travelled down her body to the waistband of the pants she wore.

His fingers tucked themselves inside the pants, as though being cautious, making sure it was okay for them to be there.

With no objections, his fingers pulled the waistband downward. She let go of her hold on him, allowing him to pull the clothing away.

He stood from the bed, pulling her pants, as well as her underwear, away from her. As he pulled away though, she seemed hesitant. Even more so when he had finished and began on his own.

She looked mortified at his naked body, as though she were now realizing the mistake she had made in agreeing to go through with this.

"Sakura?" he soothed, not wanting to frighten her.

She looked up and, regardless of how he spoke to her, the fear was there.

He could see just how much she didn't want to go through with it so, not having kicked away his clothes yet, pulled them back.

"Itachi wait!" her voice quickly stopped him.

"Let me get used to the situation first," she seemed more calm than she was when he first bent down.

"Can you…" she seemed lost for words, not quite sure what to say.

He merely smiled at her.

"Do you want me to come over?" she only nodded in response.

He moved around the bed this time, not wanting to crawl over her in the state she was in and, when he reached her, he merely pulled the blankets up and slid beneath them, motioning for her to join him.

Hesitant at first, she came to the decision to join him, knowing he wouldn't try anything she didn't want until given the go-ahead.

She felt much better about the situation knowing she was in control and as she grew more confident, she shuffled closer towards him. Sensing the change, Itachi mirrored the action.

"Itachi," she sounded nothing like the girl that was trying to ask him to come closer to her.

"Hmm?"

"I think I'm ready now," she smiled and he returned the gesture.

He rolled her shoulder to the bed so she wasn't facing him anymore but instead the ceiling, his hand only stopping when it hit the soft mattress as well.

He pulled her into a gentle, slow kiss as his body moved to hover over her own.

Positioning himself before her, he slowly let himself slide between her luscious lips, but as soon as she broke the kiss from the pain she was in, he stopped moving.

"It's okay," he comforted, "it's supposed to hurt the first time. Just tell me when you're ready, okay."

He waited several moments for her to respond but when she did she nodded quickly. Once again, he slowly pushed himself further into her.

He could see the pain she was in and although he wanted anything but hurting her, he knew it was a necessity for their current actions.

Once he knew he could go no further, he paused, waiting for her body to accept his.

She unclenched her hands from the sheet covering her bed and wrapped them around Itachi, as though giving him the signal to continue. He did just that, beginning with a slow pace he knew she could handle, but as their bodies grew to know one another, his pace picked up until they were moaning and screaming each other's names out in ecstacy.

"Itachi!" she screamed.

After that, the only thing they were able to hear was their heavy breathing and the rustling of the sheets as Itachi rolled off her so as to allow her to rest.

He looked over to her and noticed her smile couldn't be any wider than what it was.

He let out a quick chuckle then rolled so he could face her more easily. She followed suit.

"So," he smiled, "what did you think?"

Apparently, he was mistaken as he saw her smile stretch even further across her face.

She opened her mouth, as if to speak, but she couldn't find the proper words.

_How does someone even describe that? Is it even possible?_

"It was… just…" as though it would make better sense, Sakura made the movements with her hands to show that he had just blown her mind.

He let out another small laugh and pulled her towards him.

"Yeah, that's how it is," he said before he kissed her forehead.

They lay there, quietly enjoying each other's company when they heard Konan's sweet voice yelling at someone.

"You **can't** go in there!"

"What? To hell I can't!" came a masculine voice.

A loud footstep was heard, showing the anger the other speaker had, then more Konan.

"Look. You don't **want** to go in there, not even be close to being in there."

An exasperated sigh was heard, then the door flew open, revealing the male behind all the yelling.

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**so, i don't know about you but i'm really not feeling this lemon (if it can be called that)... i'm sorry if you found it horrible too, but it's my first time writing one, so critisism would really be helpful please... also, who do you think the man is?**

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**on another note, if i don't update next week, it's because i'm in a writer's rutt... i'm sorry if this does happen, but i will try not to let it... until next time**


	13. The Perfect Ruined Moment

**WOOH! another chapter has been finished... before you read on to the good bits (the story) i just want to thank my beta, Chocoholic princess, for helping me fix this chapter up. not too many mistakes (not as many as there could have been), but she still helped me out. seriously, thank you :D**

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"Itachi!" the man yelled, apparently not yet noticing Sakura. "I know I've been away, but it would have at least been nice to…" he stopped, only noticing Sakura now.

"Uhh…" Sakura wasn't quite sure as to what she should do. "Hi?"

Itachi turned to her with a look on his face, as if to pretend she weren't there.

"Give me a moment," he told the man, "I'll be right out."

The man hesitated for a moment before stepping out, leaving the two of them to themselves. Once the door clicked closed, Itachi pulled the sheets from over himself and left the bed in search for clean clothes.

Sakura sat up so she could watch Itachi on his clothe-finding mission.

"Itachi?"

"Hn."

"Who… who was that?"

Itachi froze, if only for a moment, but Sakura caught it. When his movements continued, however, it was as though she had said nothing.

"Itachi?" she said more harshly. He found what he deemed to be decent clothes - his mesh shirt and loose fitting trousers - and made his way out of the room.

"Itachi!" she yelled after him, but there came back no reply.

The door didn't quite close properly behind him, allowing her to hear the whispered conversation being held on the other side of the door.

"What does he want?"

"I don't know, just… look after her for me, I don't want him anywhere near her. I didn't even want him to know she was here!"

"I'll do my best. Just… don't keep him waiting."

"I know. Thanks Konan."

Then there were footsteps walking away from the bedroom and the door started to open with a squeak. Sakura wasn't surprised to see Konan emerge through the crack.

"Hey, Konan," although Sakura was happy to see her, she just couldn't find it in herself to put any emotion into her words after Itachi left so abruptly.

"Hey, kiddo," she smiled, moving further into the room. She made herself comfortable in the chair that was next to the bed.

Sakura let herself fall back on the bed and faced the wall.

"Konan?"

"Mm?"

"Who was that man?"

Konan was quiet for a moment.

"I'm not in any position to tell you."

Sakura rolled herself over to face the other woman.

"What do you mean 'not in any position to tell me'? Aren't you one of the heads of this organization?"

"If Itachi wants you to know, he'll tell you, but he's asked me not to tell you."

Sakura held the bed sheets close to her body as she got up off the bed to find her own clothing.

"Since when did that damned Uchiha decide that he could do these things?" she vented, searching through her drawers for clean underwear and a bra. When she found what she was looking for, she slammed the drawer shut, leaving it with several small cracks and moved on to find clothing she would be able to leave the room in.

"Sakura," Konan was making sure to be cautious with her words, so as not to anger the pink-haired kunoichi any further, "I know you think this is unfair now, but if you knew what Itachi was up to, you would understand his motives completely."

"Well I **don't** know Itachi's motives so I **don't ** understand!" she yelled back, causing Konan to flinch slightly.

Sakura found a suitable shirt and screamed out in frustration.

"Why can't you just tell me!"

"Because it's not my place, Sakura!" she shouted in return.

The door burst open once again to reveal someone else.

"Will you both just please SHUT UP! Un."

"Deidara! Get the hell out of here!" Konan roared rushing in front of Sakura to protect her barely covered body from his angry glare.

"I wouldn't have to be in here if you would just keep it down, un!"

"Well we wouldn't have to yell if Itachi weren't such a **prick**!" Sakura screeched over Konan's shoulder.

Anger seemed to radiate off of Deidara.

"Ah…" he said, ignoring Konan's deadly glare and stepping further into the room, "so you hate the weasel as well, un?"

"Yes! No! I don't know yet!" Sakura replied angrily.

"Well, figure it out then we'll talk, un," then he turned and left, slamming the door behind him.

"And keep it down!" he yelled through the door as an afterthought.

"No!" Sakura yelled back, "I have my rights!"

Konan stood.

"Where are you going? I still want my answers!" Sakura demanded, an angry aura surrounding her.

"I don't think either of us wants me to see you getting changed, Sakura. I'll just be outside."

Sakura remained silent as Konan left and only continued dressing herself once the door had clicked shut.

* * *

Sakura had only just pulled her shirt over her head when the door burst open once again, causing Sakura to nearly jump out of her own skin.

"Sakura!" Itachi's voice matched the panicked expression he wore.

She merely stared at him in disbelief, but when she got over the shock of yet another Akatsuki member bursting through her door, her lid blew.

"Not only can I not get dressed in peace or have a lovely morning sleeping in **but** I have the males of the goddamn Akatsuki barging into my bedroom for different reasons **and** to top it off, I have **you** scaring me half to death!"

During her little speech, she had stepped forward subconsciously until she was so close to Itachi, she could feel his warm breath on her face.

"So tell me, in compensation, who the hell was that?" Itachi's smile instantly fell and he didn't feel as welcoming as he did.

"Sakura," his voice was very demanding. "Pack your things. We're leaving."

He pushed past her and, from his bottom drawers, he pulled out two large travel packs and set to work after throwing one to Sakura's bed.

"Where are we going?"

He remained silent, ignoring her, and kept packing. She, on the other hand, screamed out in frustration and fell to her bed.

Itachi let out a sigh of frustration, grabbed the bag from her bed and started packing for her.

"No! Stop, Itachi! Wherever it is you're going, I don't want to go. Not if you're going to be like this!" she yelled, trying to snatch the bag off him.

He pushed her an arm's length away, looking her straight in the eye.

"Sakura! Shut up!" his voice had risen several levels above its usual and Sakura flinched at the sound. He saw the frightened look in Sakura's eyes and pulled her close to him.

When he spoke again, his voice was much softer.

"I'm sorry, Sakura. I didn't mean to yell." He could feel she was attempting to hold her tears back, but the newly found wet patch on his shirt told him she wasn't doing a good job of it.

"Just… just tell me," she said between sniffles, "where are we going?"

He pulled her closer, if that was even possible.

"I'm taking you away from the Akatsuki."

She managed to pull herself free from his grasp. As she looked straight at his face, her own features pulled into something recognizable as confusion.

"Away? But… Konan? And Kisame? What about them?"

"I'm taking you to keep you from Akatsuki, Sakura, meaning no more Akatsuki members."

"And what of you? Am I to never see you again either?" She looked to the floor, as though hearing the answer she knew was coming wouldn't come if she didn't see his lips say it.

"I will be there with you, every step of the way."

Her face seemed to twist to show more confusion by the second.

"No!" she swung her arms in an X as though to signify that her answer was final.

"Sakura…" Itachi reached out for her, but she pulled away before he could bring her back to his comforting body.

At least he could now see her face, but the anger shown made the minute upward pull of his lips disappear.

"I don't think you're understanding…" she cut him off.

"I'm not 'understanding'? No, Itachi! You're the one that doesn't understand! I don't think the person you loved ever left you on a bench to freeze, nor did they make an attempt on your life. What about the fact that I was left on my own, not knowing what the hell I'm doing tied up in some dark room when some **freak** attempts to rape me! Have you ever felt what I felt then? In any of those situations?" she paused as though he would answer her in the moment of silence, but they both knew he wouldn't. "I didn't think so! And now you want those feelings to return because there's some danger? No! I am staying exactly where I am." She sat heavily on the edge of the bed, as though it would help to prove her point.

After her rant, the pair remained silent. The tension was only cut when Itachi sighed in exasperation and left, closing the door behind him. Sakura, left to her own devices, lay back down facing the wall and let the tears she had held back flow steadily down her cheeks.

* * *

**just as a warning, i'm going away this tomorrow and i don't know if i'll have internet or not. regardless of that fact, i'll still be able to write, but if i don't, it'll just take me a little while to update, but hopefully not too long as i'm only gone for a week**


	14. Plans To Leave

**okay, so it's been two weeks since the last update. i'm sorry it's taken so long, but i was figuring things out with my beta (props to "Chocoholic princess") and once all of the thoughts made sense, they were put down on (metaphorical) paper... so, after all that planning, here are the results...**

* * *

_I might not understand exactly what you're going through, but I __**do**__ understand not having anyone there for you,_ he thought.

Itachi wasn't dumb, he knew Sakura needed space after her rant, that's why he had left her alone. Not wanting to move any further away from her though, Itachi stepped to the wall opposite the bedroom's door, slid down it and let out the breath he didn't know he was holding in a sigh.

_I just wish __**she**__ would understand that this decision is in her best interest._

He closed his eyes, allowing his mind wander to thoughts of Sakura. A small smile graced his lips at said thoughts.

* * *

_All I've got to do is keep this up until he's far enough away from here. Yeah! This plan will definitely work._

Sakura smiled as she noticed there was not one difference between her own body and her shadow clone's. it was flawless.

"I'll hide under the bed while you go check to see where he is, okay?" The shadow clone nodded at her command.

Once the original Sakura was beneath the bed, shadow clone Sakura made her way from the room in search of Itachi, whose sleeping form she tripped on.

She screamed as she fell to the floor, but was saved at the last moment from hitting her face on the wooden floorboards by a pair of strong, masculine hands.

"You really should watch where you're going, Sakura," came his deep voice. "Which begs the question, 'where **were** you going?'," he asked as he helped her to her feet.

Sakura turned to face Itachi, but as she looked to his eyes, she noticed that, not only were they not in their Sharingan form, but they were also unusually blank. Sakura pushed this aside, thanking whoever was out there that Itachi wasn't using the Sharingan, else he would be able to see through her shadow clone.

"Coming to find you, of course," she said as though it was blatantly obvious and that it were stupid to think she would be doing anything else.

"What were **you** doing though? It's kind of weird that you were just sitting outside my room like that. It's as though you were **trying** to trip me up just so you could catch me."

He let out a slight chuckle.

"I was waiting outside of **our** room, Sakura, because I knew you'd need time alone and I didn't wish to impose on anyone else."

Sakura remained silent. She then broke it a moment later.

"It's still weird, Itachi."

His lips turned upwards at his.

_She always knows how to make me smile._

"What are we waiting around here for, I thought you wanted to leave?" she paused in her path back to the bedroom to look over her shoulder at him with a cheeky grin. "Or have you changed your mind about that?"

Itachi's smile broadened as he shook his head and pushed her further into the bedroom, closing the door behind them.

"And miss the chance to spend time alone with you?" he spun her around to face him and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips. "I don't think so."

Itachi let her body go and moved to her pack to check over what she was bringing, whereas Sakura was still slightly dumbfounded by the gentleness of that kiss, as she only knew of the rough, passionate kisses he could bring her.

She was woken from her thoughts, however, by a quick nudge to her shoulder.

"Sakura? You still there?"

She turned to face him, only to see the questioning look on his face as he held her lace panties.

"Don't you have any normal underwear?"

She grabbed at the panties and her backpack, pulling them close to her body as though to shield them from his calculating gaze.

"I don't question the way you dress, do I? I mean, I saw everything I needed to yesterday, and let me be the one to say this before you embarrass yourself further, 'briefs'? Really? How old are you, six?"

He moved to the other side of the room to where his pack lay on his own bed and pulled it over his shoulder, preparing to move out.

"I assure you, that was a one-off chance and I was not expecting them to be on display for any other to see, you just picked a bad day."

"I **picked** a bad day? Itachi, I don't know what that Sharingan of yours has done to your brain, but **you** were the one that initiated what happened yesterday, **not** me. You could have done something about," she pointed to his crotch, "your little 'problem'."

He stared for a moment then let his pack fall from his shoulder as he took slow, seductive steps towards her body.

"Oh, Sakura, you don't understand how you affect me with your cruel words."

He was mere inches away now.

"'Cruel words'?" the distance between them had Sakura frozen with shock, the only thing keeping her going was the want she felt for this man.

He lowered his head closer to hers. He hummed in agreement.

His face was now so close she could feel the warmth of his breath upon her face, causing her eyes to close and enjoy the feeling. She felt his calloused hand reach up to her the side of her face in a way that brought shivers through her body.

She couldn't wait any longer for him to bring them closer, so she leapt into action and pulled his face down towards hers, thrusting their lips together in a somewhat violent kiss.

He tried to pull away for air, but she only brought them closer, not allowing any air to come between them. He merely smiled against her lips at the action.

He brought his hands up to her shoulders and physically forced himself away from her. Once away, he turned his head slightly so she wouldn't be able to just bring him straight back for more.

They were both panting quite heavily. Itachi only dared to glimpse at Sakura when his breathing was stable, but that one look caused him to lose all the self-control he had left.

"What have I created?" he laughed as he pulled her back to him in a kiss more passionate than the last.

"Take me, Itachi," she gasped out between breaths, "Take me now!"

He took the hint and began undressing her, pulling his shirt over her head, as well as his, then pushing her against the bed. At the contact her body made with the wooden object, Sakura let herself fall, bringing Itachi down on top of her form.

His hands moved slowly down her sides to the waistband of the pants she wore. He let his hand inside her waistband to let it explore, first making its way to her well-rounded butt, then slightly lower to her panties. As his skilled fingers made contact with her heated core, she let out a gasp.

He wanted more noises out of her, so he continued pushing his fingers against the piece of cloth. She let out a low moan, expressing the pleasure his fingers were bringing her, but she wanted more.

She brought her own hands down to meet his and pushed his finger past the wet material of her panties and straight to the cause of her soaking underwear, eliciting a louder, more delicious moan from her.

Once she knew he had gotten her message, she pulled her hands away and tugged at his pants.

"These need to go," she almost ordered as she attempted to rid him of his pants, only to find she couldn't reach far down enough without stopping his ministrations.

He could feel she wasn't able to rid him of his clothing, so he forced himself away from her to help, pulling what remained of her clothing away as he added space between them.

He was admiring her body when the door suddenly opened.

"Sakura, I just wanted you to know that…" then Konan looked up at the scene and froze.

* * *

**and now you're upset because i cut the lemon short... well, mwahahah! well, until next time, readers (don't forget to review please?)**


	15. On The Wrong Side Of The Infamous Uchiha

**sorry guys, it's taken so long to update, but my Chocoholic Princess were busy, what with Christmas coming up and all, which by the way, MERRY CHRISTMAS! i have decided, this is my christmas gift to you, no matter when you read it... but seriosuly, WOOOOH! (as you can tell, i'm a bit excited for christmas)**

* * *

Itachi, who was always on full alert, rushed to Sakura and covered her with as much of her blanket as he could. Once he deemed her comfortably covered, he made sure he himself was decent. ITachi then turned back to Konan, who had slammed the door shut in her wake - as soon as she got over the initial shock of seeing her new friend naked with one of her male friends, that is.

Sakura, still not quite knowing what to think of the situation, merely laid there until Itachi turned to look at her.

"Oh my god!" he heard her whisper, but didn't see her lips move, however her eyes widened after the words were said.

Itachi's brow furrowed and he leapt on Sakura's form.

"Where is she!" he demanded, eyes blazing with fury.

"Wh… where is wh…who?" she had tried to keep her voice steady, but she knew she had completely failed. How could she not be afraid of the man who, merely moments ago, nearly had sex with her… again.

"Where is the **real** Sakura?"

She stuttered for a moment, trying to find the words she was looking for, until Itachi pulled her up only to push her back to the bed… hard.

"WHERE IS SHE?" he yelled. The fear he had caused was obvious on her features, but he didn't care. He needed to know where she was.

It was the first time Sakura had seen Itachi so emotional over anything.

She had remained quiet for too long so he yelled again.

"TELL ME!"

The real Sakura had had enough. She didn't want to know what Itachi would do to her clone, so she let her poof out of existence, letting Itachi fall through the space she had previously been and onto the bed.

"Sakura!" he knew she was around. Why else would she disperse.

She grabbed his ankle so as to alert him that she was beneath the bed, but he only reacted when he moved to help her out from her hiding place.

Once out, she quickly glanced at his face and instantly, she regretted it. In fact, she was wishing at this point that he showed no emotion as opposed to the anger that had now risen to his features.

As quickly as she could, she looked away, but she could still feel his glare on her.

The silence had long since become uncomfortable for her, but it was Itachi that broke it.

"Prepare your things. I'll send Konan in to watch over you," his words were laced with anger, making him sound cold and cruel.

With that, he left without another word. When the door clicked closed, after what felt like minutes, she let out a sigh of relief from the pressure his presence had just caused her.

"Awkward situation, exeunt stage left." she muttered to herself.

"Umm… Itachi," Konan wasn't exactly sure how to react to the Uchiha that now clung to her so tight, she almost couldn't breathe. What's more is that she swore he was crying. She didn't want to bring it up though, seeing as it was the murderous Uchiha after all.

After pulling herself together after the shock of the situation though, she wrapped her arms around him and rubbed his back gently, as one would to comfort another.

Between what she assumed were sobs, she swore she could hear him trying to tell her something.

She took a brave step and asked him what it was that had bothered him so much.

"What is it, Itachi?"

"She… leave… hates me… why? Need… help… please?" that was all she could make out of his attempts at words.

She tried to understand what he was trying to tell her from those words and the scene she had unwillingly walked in on, but kept drawing blanks.

"I… Itachi," she didn't want to push anything that wasn't meant to be pushed. "Wait until you've calmed down a bit, then you can tell me, okay?"

They stood for several more moments, and with each moment that passed, Itachi's breathing became more regulated and Konan heard less and less of what she assumed were his sobs.

"You ready?" she asked after she deemed enough time had passed for him to calm down and regain his composure..

He didn't answer with a nod this time though, only pulling himself away from Konan, wiping the dry tears from his red and puffy face.

"Now tell me, what happened?" she was looking straight into his face, but his eyes were on the ground. "**After** I left," she added.

"Nothing, at first."

"At first?"

"I heard her voice, but I didn't see her lips move, so I just knew she was either a clone or an imposter and then I started threatening the Sakura you saw me with, but she poofed away," he looked her directly in the eyes.

"Konan, you should have heard me. I was so angry, I just… I wanted to tear something to pieces." The smallest hint of a smile spread over his features for a moment, then disappeared. "I guess this is how Deidara feels when he gets called a girl."

Konan let out the smallest laugh.

"I guess that's why he's always blowing things up then."

That made the small smile return, but it disappeared when he remembered why it had been brought up.

"Konan, I could see how terrified she was of me when I was yelling. I didn't want that… don't ever want that. I want to keep things that make her feel that way as far from her as possible. That's why I'm doing this."

"I know, but she just doesn't understand wh…"

"No! She **doesn't** understand! When she was screaming in her sleep, I saw into her mind when I stopped it. Madara was there! He was doing it. He was giving her those horrible visions because he knew I wanted to protect her. Now that he knows I've been with her, he'll try and do **much** worse!" he raised his arms to her shoulders, as though to hold her there so she wouldn't be able to escape his explanation. "I can't have her taken away from me! I care too much about her for that and that mons…"

Her brow knitted together in confusion.

"Itachi, what is it?"

He ran from the room with all the speed he could muster.

"Itachi!" Konan yelled after him, but only found him outside his bedroom.

She raced over, and the sight that met her eyes had her bringing her hand up over her mouth to suppress a gasp, but the tears that fell couldn't be helped.

She spared a glance at Itachi's form and saw that he was frozen in place. He hadn't moved since she started to go over to him.

The mere sight of him brought more tears, so she looked back to the room.

The first viewing was enough, but the second brought her to her knees.

In her peripherals, she saw a change in Itachi's demeanour and looked back to see the change that had taken place. If the visible signs of his rage weren't enough, the blacker than black aura surrounding him would have said it all.

If the choice had been left to him, he would have remained staring, motionless at the room's threshold, but his body had a mind of its own, and it was saying "Move!"

Konan wanted to move, but her body was telling her to look back at the room for anything that might help, it was the kunoichi in her. Her eyes tore away from the Uchiha, who was now racing down the hall screaming his master's name, to the trashed room, focusing mainly on the broken window and the large pools of blood. But most of all, the missing Sakura.

* * *

**dun dun DAAAAAHHH! so, who do you think took her? i can give out a spoiler and say it wasn't... well, i won't do that because that would be giving away a spoiler (mwahahah)**

**well, i guess you'll have to read chapter 16 to find out, which will either (only if it's ready) come out of new years eve (how'd that get here so quick?) or in the new year (mwahahah)... well, until then, readers :D**

**so... review to tell me if you're liking this or not**


	16. Banding Together To Find Her

**sorry it's taken me so long to update, but there has been some SERIOUS writer's block going around. either i caught it from Chocoholic princess, or she caught it from me. either way, we couldn't give each other ideas. BUT i did recently have a writing epiphany (be it only small) and ground this out of my imagination... anyway, enjoy reading, and thank for doing so :D**

* * *

"MADARA!" Itachi screamed as he made his way to where his old master was staying.

Deidara opened his door at the sound of his fellow Akatsuki screaming through the halls.

"Oh god, Uchiha! What the hell is it this time, can't find your dummy, un?"

He was slammed into the wall by an arm at his throat, causing a rather large hole from the force used. The arm remained where it was.

"What was that!" The angry Uchiha bellowed, radiating an aura of pure anger. Deidara could see through the lines with his terrified blues.

"I said, 'is there anything I can help with?'."

Itachi's arm released its pressure until it was dropped by his side.

"Go to Konan!" he ordered. "Help in any way you can." With that, he was racing through the halls again, leaving the blonde stupefied.

* * *

Madara walked from his own room as he heard the loud roar of Itachi's voice calling his name. When the younger Uchiha was within sight though, Madara ran at him, screaming out his name and bearing the same pose as his minor.

When Itachi saw Madara running towards him screaming out his name, he became more agitated.

"What have you done with her?" he screamed at his elder.

"Done with who?" he screamed back.

This only angered Itachi further and, as the two Uchihas were about to collide, Itachi pulled his arm back and swung, aiming for Madara's uncovered face.

His arm went straight through Madara's form though, but the momentum had him hitting the wall instead.

"What the hell, Itachi?" Madara had stopped a few feet away and was now eyeing the hole Itachi's arm was now stuck in.

"This isn't funny, Madara!" Itachi growled, trying to pull his arm free, but to no avail.

"I can see that!" His voice had risen slightly than before, clearly showing that he was beyond angry as he kept his eyes on Itachi's trapped form.

Itachi just growled in frustration at the older man, trying harder to pull his arm free from its confines.

"This isn't one of your games!" his voice was louder than before.

Just then, Deidara and Konan arrived, running down the hall.

Deidara stood next to Madara and threw a punch at him as well, only to have the Uchiha use kamui and for Deidara to fall through.

"Why are you all trying to hit me!" He screamed out as he noticed Konan preparing paper shuriken for his direction.

There was a loud crash as Itachi finally freed himself from the wall, which was a clear sign the wall had collapsed, scattering debris everywhere.

"Don't play dumb with me, you twisted bastard!" The three of them now had Madara surrounded.

"Tell us," Konan had never been more serious about anything than this, "Where are you keeping her?"

Madara waited a moment for the trio to explain themselves, but he received no such explanation.

"Look. I don't know what the hell has gotten into you all, but I honestly have no idea who you're talking about."

Itachi growled and raised his arm, prepared to hit the old man, but Madara just held up his hands, turning from Itachi, to Deidara and finishing on Konan, so they could all see he wasn't going to fight them.

"Please, explain to me the issue and I will try to help."

"You took Sakura from me!" Itachi let his arm fall through Madara's body again.

"What?" he spun to face Itachi now. "The girl with the pink hair?"

The trio remained surrounding him, soundless.

"Why would I take her? What business do I have with her?"

"Because she is with me! That's why, you **sick** bastard!"

"Itachi! Stop!" he commanded. "If I were to do something with the girl, I would do it so you would know. I wouldn't steal her away to do that. What would be the point in the pain if you don't **both** experience it?"

Itachi's face turned more serious than what it already was. He wasn't happy at Madara's words, but knew he was speaking the truth.

"If you didn't take her, Madara," he said his elder's name with malice, "Then help me find who did."

* * *

A mysterious young man walked about the table on which the pinkette lay, sensually dragging his fingers across her smooth skin.

He awaited for her to awaken, but until then, he would enjoy exploring her grown figure.

He could tell she was on the verge of consciousness, so he began speaking with her. Words he knew she had always wished to hear, but never had done.

"My, my, Sakura, what a beautiful young woman you turned out to be."

He let his fingers trace down her leg and slightly back up.

"I'm ashamed to say I never offered myself to such a fine female specimen."

A smirk graced his lips.

"You will do well for my intentions."

* * *

**so sakura's gone missing and we have the person that took her have their appearance... anyone want to guess who it is? (except you, Chocoholic princess... heheh)**


	17. The Hunt

**i'm sorry for the long wait, but i seriously just could not get anything written down... well, until now, i guess... anyway, i major thank you to Chocoholic princess for betaing the story (WOOOHH! YOU DA BEST) and thank you to those that favourite/follow/review the story (seriously guys, review, i LIKE feedback)**

* * *

To use the word 'unusual' to describe the situation, would not be describing the situation correctly. To say using the word 'unusual' is an understatement would be a statement of truth.

"Hurry up, Kisame!" Itachi barked.

Those first two words were the only ones that Itachi seemed able to produce, along with the names three of his companions.

"Itachi! You need to calm yourself down!" Madara, the only one that had started on Itachi's bad side, was willing to stay there for the sake of everyone's nerves.

If looks could kill, the look Itachi gave Madara would have killed him twelve times over.

"Ah… I know we all want it to happen, Madara, but I suggest you stop before you lose something you don't want to."

"Kisame, I know how much you care about me," his sarcasm was clearly evident in his response, "But at least I'm bringing it up, unlike you two useless babies that would rather not get on the bad side of 'the Itachi Uchiha'."

"Stop bickering and pick up the trail!" that order was straight to Kisame.

"So, please explain to me, Itachi, why we're all here," Kisame wondered aloud.

Itachi merely growled in response, not paying him any extra thought than was needed.

"You, my fishy friend," Madara began on Itachi's behalf, "are here for your chakra tracing abilities. The angel over there," he pointed towards Konan, "is here for her new BFF. Itachi, obviously, for the sexual connection between the two of them. Of course, I'm the only one I can't figure out. Which begs the question, Itachi, why exactly **am** I here?"

Itachi remained silent for a moment, when he spoke though, he kept his sight straight ahead, as though he might be able to see Sakura if he looked long enough.

"As much as I hate to admit it, Madara is here for his expertise and knowledge. That which I do not possess."

He turned to face the rest of the group.

"Now hurry up and pick up their trail, Kisame!" Itachi growled out, as though he were done with speech altogether.

Kisame, not wanting to go against the upset Uchiha, followed orders. When Samehada picked up Sakura and her captors' chakra trail, he pointed the way and they all set off.

* * *

She could feel something brushing along her leg. She couldn't tell exactly what it was, but felt familiar. Then it shifted and she could feel the five fingers of someone's hand.

She moved her body towards where she assumed the arm connected to that hand joined to a body and moaned softly.

As consciousness drew upon her, she sensed the other persons' chakra where she had assumed they were, and it was moving closer towards her.

Not only could she sense them looming right over her, but she could feel their breath on her neck, then an oh-so-familiar voice cooing her awake.

"Sakura…"

Sakura rolled closer to the chakra and let another small moan escape her mouth.

The other person let out a quick huff of breath, signalling his laughter at her reaction.

"Saah-kura…" he cooed again, allowing his hand to resume its journey up her leg, sending jolts of pleasure down her spine.

Her eyes flew wide open as she threw her arms out to pull his face to hers, only stopping when he was mere centimetres away.

"I thought that was just a dream," she almost cried, then closed the distance between them.

He reacted just the way she thought he would, putting as much passion into their kiss as she was. When he did so, she let out a low moan, pulling the remainder of his body down over hers.

He pulled away ever so slightly.

"Sakura…" he purred. "I didn't know you wanted this as much as I did."

She pulled him back down for a quick kiss.

"Of course I do, Itachi."

With that, she pulled him back to continue their chaste kiss to recreate it as one full of passion and any other feeling she felt for him. However, she felt that he wasn't acting in the same way. In fact, he had completely stopped all movements.

She pulled away and looked him in the eye and her brow furrowed .

"What is it?"

He was quiet for a moment, as if gathering his words, then they came to him.

"Say that again."

"'What is it?'?"

"No. the other part." It sounded more like a command than anything else.

It took her a moment to remember, but she got there.

"I said 'of course I do'. I don't…" but he cut her off.

"The name! what was the name you said?"

She was stunned.

"…Itachi…"

His body went rigid and his eyes changed from the regular onyx she was used to, to the deep scarlet she knew meant trouble was coming.

She knew what she wanted to say, but she was hesitant due to his eyes.

"W… what is it?"

If it were possible, the deep red of his eyes grew deeper and the tomoes changed shape.

Sakura was shaking, fear taking over. With the sound of thousands of birds chirping though, her shaking fear escalated to trembling panic.

Then he explained himself.

"Because I'm not my brother!" Sasuke snarled at his brother's lover.

* * *

"Madara! I swear, if you don't hurry your ancient ass up I'll make sure you don't have one to moveanymore!"

"Just because I'm four times your age, does not mean I move like an old man!

"Madara, just shut up!" that earned Kisame a glare that could kill.

His mouth was about to open, but Kisame continued on.

"Look, the sooner we get there, the sooner we can spend time away from each other. And that is something I thought you might want." Under his breath, he added, "I know we all want time away from Mr. Control."

"I heard that, you giant tuna," Itachi grumbled from the front of their group.

Konan hurried her pace to catch up to meet the front of their group. When she reached Itachi, she turned to him and spoke her first words of their Sakura-retrieval mission.

"Itachi, we **will** find her. I promise you that.

Itachi turned to face her and let the ghost of a smile touch his lips, then quickly mouthed a 'thank you' to the blue-haired angel.

She knew he appreciated the comfort. He had no idea where Sakura was and, despite his emotionless façade, she knew he was freaking out.

He had countless enemies, and if they were to find out about Sakura, they would, more than likely, use her as leverage against him. Anything to hurt him, just as Madara would want.

That was the real reason Itachi was dragging him along on this field trip.

He knew though, that once Sakura was found, he would still need to leave with Sakura. Madara would always be after him, always want to torture, to harm him in any way possible, no matter who else would get in the way.

If he were any other man, Itachi knew he would still be at the base, screaming and breaking walls, but he knew he had to keep a lid on it to find Sakura as soon as possible.

* * *

**well, it's a good thing i know what i'm doing for the next chapter. yeah, just like this one... if it takes forever, i'm sorry, but the ideas just aren't coming to me (i blame you for not reviewing)**


	18. Flee, Blossom Flee!

**just a quick question for readers; do you ever tell jokes to your non-naruto friends and they just stare at you like you've taken ething shouldn't have? i mean, come on! just because they're not cool enough to get your hilaious joke... that's why we've all gathered here :D**

* * *

**a note to reviewers; seriously guys, thanks for the reviews. i'm glad to see people are starting to get the message and started reviewing...**

**and here's to guest reviewers;**

**charm (from chapter 10, sorry for not getting back to you earlier)... i'm glad you find it amusing... that's what the jokes are there for**

**hyi... no no... madara's not a good guy. he's just helping now so he can hurt itachi later much worse. sorry for the confusion. hough, i dolike a story where madara is the good guy... not many of them around :(**

**guest... i'm glad it gave you the jitters... that just means it was super awesome :D but anyway, here's the next chapter for you;**

* * *

"Itachi," Kisame knew he had his partner's attention, "Samehada tells me they're close."

Konan's eyes shot to Kisame's figure, as did Itachi's. They could both see the hesitation in him. It was obvious in his character that there was something else he wanted to say.

"What is it?" It wasn't a question, but a demand.

"It's just that… Samehada recognizes the other chakra. It's familiar to him, but he can't remember where he's tasted it before."

Itachi kept his gaze on the shark-man a moment longer before he turned back to face forward.

"Roughly how far, Kisame?"

"A day if we move as slow as possible. And I mean as slow as humanly possible for any shinobi," he turned to Konan, "Or kunoichi."

"Then let's get a move on. The less time we spend around Mr. Sulk, the better." Itachi glared daggers at Madara for his comment

The others could see he was about to say something that they obviously knew would start an argument, or worse, a fight, but Konan interjected before it could get to that.

"Let's go. We need to save Sakura."

* * *

_Sasuke?! _

As soon as she thought his name, it was pushed out, due to his hand, surrounded by lightning, heading straight for her body.

She had moved so fast, she wasn't entirely sure what had happened but, from what she could see of the aftermath, if she hadn't moved as she had, the table she had previously been lying on wouldn't be the only thing Sasuke's hand would be stuck through.

Sakura took this moment to run.

As fast as she possibly could.

She actually heard him growl like a rabid animal.

She reached the other side of the room where she saw a door and found her exit through there.

"GET BACK HERE SAKURA! I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU YET!" The Uchiha screamed out when Sakura had disappeared through the door.

She didn't have a death wish. No way in hell would she go back to that bipolar psychopath. Instead, she ran down the corridor, in a desperate attempt to get away from him.

"SAKURAAAHH!"

She could feel her heart trying to find its way out of her body, trying to remove itself from the danger it knew her body was in.

_Gotta get out! _

She heard a loud crash coming from the direction of the room she had just left and she knew she'd be running on adrenaline from there onwards.

_I have to get out of here!_

"SAKURAAH!"

_SHIT! He's getting closer!_

* * *

_That fucking bitch!_

Sasuke knew his hand was bleeding, but he didn't care, he ignored the searing pain that was running through, due to ramming the Chidori meant for Sakura through the metal table instead. Continuing on the trail of his old teammate, Sasuke could feel the anger slowly taking over him.

There was only one other person that knew this Sakura's prison better than he, and Sasuke knew he was nowhere nearby.

No one could escape him. He would not allow it.

Just as long as they were the only two in the vicinity.

* * *

The small ninja group all stopped and turned to each other.

"Itachi," Kisame directed his words to his partner, but also spoke to his sword, "Didn't that sound like your precious 'otouto'?"

Samehada snarled in agreement, happy to have finally remembered where it had tasted such chakra before.

It was obvious Itachi would react in a negative way to this information, as well as Konan, who had grown quite close to the only other female around the Akatsuki's base, but they were all taken aback when Madara's eyes narrowed. It was barely visible, like he weren't trying to show it, but his three companions were highly trained in the ways of the shinobi life, which meant noticing even the smallest of changes when they occurred.

* * *

_There she is…_

Sasuke was currently channelling chakra to the soles of his feet, allowing him to walk on the roof, watching the pinkette as she attempted to find what she was looking for.

An exit.

A way out.

Anything to help her get away from him.

_How very… naïve of you, Sakura._

* * *

Sakura heard a dark chuckle envelope the hall in which she had found herself in.

She spun in the direction she heard the dark noise, knowing exactly what it meant.

Sasuke was too close for comfort.

His ominous laughter rang through the halls again, this time behind Sakura.

She spun once again, emerald finding ruby.

_…Itachi._

* * *

_I **need** to find her! I can't… can't… no… Sakura… not without Sakura._

Itachi didn't quite care for his companions, just the safety of the pinkette.

He wanted her by his side. No. **Needed** her there.

He knew that when she was there, he felt better about his past actions. He knew the pain or guilt for what he had done could never, would never disappear, but with her there, those thoughts would remain as far as possible from his subconscious.

* * *

_This door?_

Sakura swung a heavy metal door open for the umpteenth time this hallway and she felt nowhere nearer to any form of exit.

_No! Crap! Maybe the next one?_

She tried the next door, but found she had no more luck than she did all the previous possible exits she had tried.

She thought she was a goner when Sasuke had looked her in the eye with his sharingan, but she had quickly disposed of him with a chakra infused hit to his skull.

* * *

Sasuke let out more maniacal laughter.

He had won. She was trapped with no possible way out.

He had learnt this particular form of genjutsu from his mentor. An Uchiha special this man had acquired and rightfully passed on to him.

The biggest upside of this particular jutsu though, was that the only requirement was for the caster to have, in their possession, the sharingan and for the victim to have chakra. The reason being that this jutsu used the other persons' chakra to keep itself up. Once the victim ran out of chakra, the casting would break and the person would be freed of it.

Yet another upside was that, with each chakra burning move those ensnared used would help to burn their own chakra quicker.

Sasuke had absolutely no idea what he had trapped her in, but he knew it would knock her out. At least long enough for him to drag her back to his quarters and use the chakra rope his mentor had left him.

You know, just in case.

* * *

**so... review... tell me what you're thinking. come one, i want to know**


	19. The Devil's Master

**OH MY GOD! IT'S FINALLY HERE! WOOOOOOOOH!**

**so, as a gift (also, i was on a role) for waiting for so fricken long, i have the next chapter written and almost ready. Chocoholic princess and i just needd to go over it. it will be up as soon as we've done that**

* * *

"Is that it? Is that where she's being held?"

Kisame closed his eyes, concentrating on the rundown building before them to feel out his new friend's chakra.

"Yes, though her chakra signature has changed."

Itachi's head snapped to his partner's direction.

"How so?" his brows were knitted together with worry.

"It's…" he paused, attempting to find the right words. "Her chakra's fluctuating. It wasn't last time I checked it though."

If it were possible, Itachi's eyebrows drew closer together as he turned back towards the building and, once more, picked up the pace of the four-man group.

"Then we have to hurry. She needs us."

_She needs __**me**_.

"We know, Itachi, but you need to focus. We can't have you… 'not there'," came Konan's soft voice from beside him.

"If it were me…" Madara began.

"But it's not you," Kisame pointed out with a cheeky smirk across his face.

Madara glared back at the giant shark, though the action went ignored by all the others of the group. Any action made by him went ignored though as Madara was the unwanted ninja of the group, the one no one wanted there, but had to be there for their usefulness, o**nly** for their usefulness, until they heard an unusual thwack of something hitting a tree branch.

The other Akatsuki members all watched as Madara's body landed on the hard ground below with a loud thud.

Konan was the first to rush to the crumpled pile of Madara that lay unconscious, whereas Itachi was last, fighting himself on going further without the rest of his group, though not before grumbling "stupid ancient" under his breath.

* * *

As much as he hated his brother for what he did to the Uchiha clan, he now had more reason to hate the man, for it seemed every time Sasuke thawed out of his cold shell and allowed himself to grow attached to something, Itachi would always be there to steal it away, driving him into a colder shell and making it harder to thaw him out for the next time.

However, this time, Sasuke would not let his brother have his attachment this time. No, this particular attachment had chosen him long before she even **knew** of Itachi's existence.

If it were Naruto, yes, he would have cared, as Naruto was the only one left he could trust, even if they were mortal enemies, but Sakura was different. He cared for her on a whole other level.

Once he had found his mentor, he had been branded a traitor to Konoha, but even then, when his old village had turned their back on him, she still cared for him. As unusual as it sounded, she had attempted to murder him in order to save him, though he retaliated and nearly killed her in return.

He hated himself afterwards, and would, even now, give up anything to go back and recreate that moment for the better.

All he knew now though, was that he couldn't keep his gaze from the beautiful woman before him.

"What are you doing?"

A mysterious voice spat with intense anger, and as quick as a flash, Sasuke spun around and instantly knelt on one knee out of repect for the figure in front of him, a figure he knew all too well.

"Shisou, I mean no disrespect, but what are you doing here?"

The figure took slow steps towards the woman tied in his student's quarters.

"I've come to warn you of your brother's approach. He brought with him the two blue Akatsuki members as well as a surprise member for you," the man had piqued his student's interest.

Sasuke stood, eyes remaining on the only female of the room, even as his mentor moved closer towards her.

"A surprise member?" his eyes turned to his shishou. "How very interesting."

He looked his student in the eyes and, if Sasuke had seen right, his mentor's lips curved upwards.

It was obvious he had wanted to say something more, but he had been interrupted by the heart wrenching scream coming from the woman before the two men.

"ITACHI!" the elder of the two cursed under his breath and made hand signs, which allowed his spirit to fade away to return to its original body.

"Shishou, wait!" but it was too late. The man had already left and Sasuke's cry had gone unheard.

* * *

She had found a small crevice in which she only just fit, which meant Sasuke wouldn't be able to fit and come in after her.

She was safe, but nothing was permanent, nothing was ever permanent. He would find some way to get to her.

It was that fact that had her frightened to the state of being unable to hold her emotions in any longer. Tears were streaming down her face as she covered her eyes by resting them on her legs, tightly held together by her quaking arms.

"Sakura!" her head snapped up at the sound of her captor's boisterous voice and her shaking grew ten-fold.

"Oh god!" her breath came out shaky and even she could barely hear it.

"Sah-kura," his voice was soft and if she were the Sakura that loved him, she would be kneeling at his feet, doing everything he wanted. In fact, she wouldn't be running, she'd be procreating, helping to restore his clan, not helping his brother.

_Itachi…_

"Sah-kura," he seemed to be purring her name.

_…please save me…_

She heard his footsteps slowly get closer to her position, her heart skipping a beat each time his shoes creaked closer.

_…please?_

"Hmm… I wonder where the cherry blossom could have hidden…" his voice was too close for comfort, which led Sakura to let out an unintentional gasp of fear.

She squeezed her eyes shut tightly and chanted Itachi's name under her breath, the one thing helping her through her current situation.

It was only a few short moments of peace, but to her, it was hours where the only sound was of her heart pounding. It was so loud though, she could have sworn that was how Itachi would find her from wherever he was.

_Itachi… please!_

"Sakura!" her name had left the Uchiha's lips in less than a second, but the action had sent her into such a shock, her thoughts became audible to the youngest Uchiha.

"ITACHI!" she screamed.

* * *

"ITACHI!"

The familiar feminine scream rang through the air and all eyes turned to the aforementioned man, who had turned to face the direction in which the sound had come from, the direction they had been heading before the eldest of the group lost consciousness.

He swore under his breath before standing.

"If that man is too much of a fool to reach the next branch, then I'm leaving him here. Whether either of you wish to join me is up to you," with that, he jumped back to the high tree branches and sped off.

The two remaining conscious Akatsuki members shared a glance before nodding to the other in silent agreement

Kisame set off after his partner, but never once opened his mouth to request that he slowdown in order for him to catch up, as he knew his partner better than that after all the time they had spent together. Hell, even someone who had just met the Uchiha would be able to see his affection for the pinkette. But Kisame knew better than any stranger would that once Itachi Uchiha made a decision, it was near impossible to sway him, even in the slightest.

"Kisame, hurry up! Which part of the building is she in?"

As he quickened his pace, he focused on the pinkette's unusual chakra signature and found the youngest Uchiha's right beside her also, which meant it was no trap.

He pointed in the direction he had felt the chakra signatures, and followed his partner's lead from then on, knowing it would cost his life if he were to disobey the headstrong ninja at this point in time.


	20. What Have You Done?

**sorry it's short, but hey, it's a chapter. plus, it has what it needs to**

* * *

Sasuke pressed his hands to his ears to block out the ear-piercing screams coming from the woman before him, who was pulling against her restraints.

"SAKURA!" he screamed. "SHUT UP!"

He was no fool. He knew screaming at her to stop would do nothing, but he couldn't find anything else to do until he found a way to cover her mouth.

It was then that, if possible, a light bulb would have appeared above his head.

With his ears still covered, he walked to where she lay, the horrible sound she was producing seeping past his hands' barriers the closer he got, and he leant down towards her, closing his mouth over hers.

_It worked! She finally stopped!_

He didn't know what it was, but he really enjoyed the feeling of Sakura, no matter what part of her, he just knew he only wanted more, and he took this chance to feel more of her, as much as humanly possible.

He brought his arm up to her waist and wound it around her, moaning into her mouth all the while. Well, until he was thrown across the room by an unknown source.

Unknown… until his eyes were back in focus and he wished his ears weren't, as said unknown force had allowed for Sakura's screaming to continue by pulling him away.

The threat tore his eyes from the beautiful woman that had, moments ago, been sexually harassed by his otouto, unbeknownst to her though, and screamed at the younger Uchiha.

"What did you do to her?" he roared over his lover's screams.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed at his brother's form hovering over Sakura's, as though he were checking her body for any signs as to why she could possibly be acting this way.

"I did what had to be done to purge her of the sickness within!"

They both knew Sasuke was talking about Sakura's feelings for the elder Uchiha brother and, in calling it a 'sickness' merely grated Itachi's last nerves together, producing a sound much like a growl.

It was at that moment his brother's partner walked in on Itachi actually growling at his younger brother.

"I gave her no such thing! It was you who plagued her, and for **years** at that!"

"I had no intention of troubling her mind with thoughts of myself…" Itachi cut him off.

"Neither did I, but at least I didn't try to **kill** her! You truly are an Uchiha, Sasuke," even though it was barely there, the other two members of the room heard the sorrow Itachi had voiced with just that simple truth.

"So what, are you going to kill me like you did the rest of our family?"

Itachi forced his hardened eyes from Sakura's unconscious body to stare his brother down.

"If I must."

It was a simple statement, but Sasuke would never admit that the truth of those words frightened him.

Sasuke flinched when the door burst open once more, revealing two more Akatsuki members. The other blue-haired member, heading straight for the pinkette, and another Sharingan user, who remained in the doorway, leaving Sasuke open-mouthed in astonishment.

"What? You thought your brother would have enough power to even think of harming me?" were his debut words, causing Sasuke's jaw to drop even more in surprise at the man before him.

"But… **how**?"

"Because he's ancient and far superior to anything you've ever come across," this Uchiha must truly be powerful, if even the great Uchiha-slayer was saying such things about him.

But what was he doing here? Was he working with Itachi? That couldn't be. This man let off an evil aura and, as evil as he knew his aniki was, he knew these two would never work together as it seemed they were.

However, his thoughts were cut off at the apparent ancient's words.

"Itachi, would you do something about that horrid sound?" his eyes clenched shut, as though that would, in any way, assist in blocking the noise out.

"It's not my fault she's like this, it's **his** doing!" he nodded his head in his brother's direction, forcing the unknown Uchiha's menacing Sharingan upon himself, causing a shiver to run the course of his body.

He let out a sound of acknowledgment.

"I see you've finally taken my teachings on board then."

All eyes turned to Madara in that moment.

"'Teachings'?" it was the woman to speak, though it seemed Itachi knew exactly what the ancient was talking about for, as soon as the shock settled in, his gaze turned back to his otoutou and, if it were possible, Sasuke could feel his brother's stare drilling holes through his body.

"What have you done, Sasuke!" it wasn't a question, but more so Itachi stating he knew exactly what was going on.

However, Sasuke chose to ignore the lesser Akatsuki members and answered the near-forgotten question, standing proud as he did so.

"Yes, Shishou."

* * *

**WOOH! so, that's the newest chapter so far. gotta get my butt into gear to finish this**... **anyway, what did you think?**

**if you like my style of writing (or just my works overall), may i suggest reading my other fic? though it is a peinsaku, there is a bit of itachi in there (though not WITH sakura, he's just an akatsuki member)**


	21. Breaking The Illusion

**WOOH! glad THAT chapter's out. not as much trouble as the last, but i did get stuck on this one small bit... one stupid little bit.**

**but anyway :D thank you Chocoholic princess, for betaing me and thank you to all those who follow, favourite, review and PM me on the both this story and my other one (it's a pein/saku, so if you like that and you like my writing, why not give it a go?)**

**ANYWAY... enjoy :D**

* * *

"ITACHI!" she screamed.

"SAKURA!" a distant voice called out, causing the offending Uchiha's outstretched hand to recoil, as though burnt.

"Sakura!" the voice called out again. "Where are you?"

The youngest Uchiha turned to look at the offending voice and growled at its owner, though, due to fear, Sakura was unable to tell if it was an enemy or an ally.

However, with the followed events, she assumed they were an ally, though she still left room for fear of an enemy merely turning against Sasuke.

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" the voice screamed out, catching Sasuke unprepared as he was enveloped in flames, burning almost all visible skin.

Sakura was too focused on the young Uchiha's burnt flesh to even notice the footsteps hurrying towards her position.

Only when the new presence blocked her view of her old love's body did she notice them, which caused her to flinch at fear of an attack, though she came to the conclusion of just who they were shortly afterward.

After realization hit her, she crawled from her hiding space as quickly as she possibly could and ran to this new person, the man she currently loved, and enveloped him in a near-crushing hold.

It felt like forever, but after the few moments it took for him to be relieved of his shock, he wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, his head breathing in the smell he craved so much.

"Don't…" only now, when Sakura tried to speak, did she realize she was crying, making it harder for her to say what she wanted to. No matter though, she tried again.

"Don't... don't leave me! Never aga…" she was cut off as she was pushed into his chest.

He pulled her away and stared straight into her eyes, showing he was dead serious about what he was about to say.

"Sakura… I swear, I will stay by your side and protect you as best I can," everything about him showed just how determined he really was, though there was a hint of sadness in his voice. It didn't seem quite true though. She knew that that was how Itachi felt, but it just… it didn't feel… right.

As though for confirmation, Sakura pulled him down to her level and brought their lips together.

Yes. It felt real. It felt like… Itachi.

* * *

There were two surprised Akatsuki members because, where Madara was involved, Itachi Uchiha was never surprised at how low he would go to cause harm to others, especially himself.

"What have you done, Sasuke?" all his words were clipped and full of rage.

Sasuke turned his head from its bowed position towards his aniki. Itachi could see the anger his ebony orbs held and, deep down, he felt sorrow for the hateful emotion that was there, but the emotion was gone as fast as it had come.

"Sasuke," Madara's voice held an aura of power, forcing the attention of his student.

Sasuke turned back to his elder, ready to follow any order given.

"Make her stop."

Sasuke stood and made his way to the screaming kunoichi laying on the table, causing Itachi to stiffen, as well as his allies, though he chose to let it go as he knew Sasuke would be stopping what sounded like Sakura in pain.

Sasuke stopped beside a screaming Sakura and, knowing Itachi was watching with those Sharingan eyes of his, recording every moment with his superior memory (should I have the bit about the memory in there?), as Sasuke spoke the jutsu reversal under his breath, he leant towards Sakura.

Itachi knew it was working as the pinkette's pained screams were dying out, but that didn't mean he was comfortable with the closeness of the two of them.

He didn't trust Sasuke, not after what he had done to his otouto throughout his nineteen years of life.

However, just as she opened her eyes, Sasuke finished the jutsu's incantation and, before she knew what was happening, his lips met hers.

Thinking it was Itachi again, Sakura merely melded into the kiss, not even noticing the change in positioning between the two, nor the different feel of this 'Itachi'.

What she did notice though, even if it were only barely, was the loud growl that came from behind 'Itachi'. However, because she thought she was still in the world in which she was still kissing Itachi, she thought it was Sasuke still alive and behind her lover, prepared for attack.

Before the man she thought to be the younger of the two Uchiha brothers had a chance to attack the man above her, she pushed him out of the way and pulled her fist back.

"SHANNARO!"

'Itachi''s attacker only heard Sakura's battle cry before flying into the wall behind him, causing dust to fly due to the incredible force of Sakura's hit.

Pain tore at Sakura's heart when the dust cleared and the now nearly unrecognizable body of the elder Uchiha was revealed.

"Oh god…" her voice was barely above a whisper.

She turned, wanting to see who it was she had thought was Itachi only to see Sasuke smirking at her; no doubt proud of what she had done to the man he hated the most.

"How could I?" tears were streaming down her face as the realization of what she had done to the man she loved sunk in. "Oh god…"

* * *

**bum bum BAAAAHHHH!**

**find out... NEXT CHAPTER! (at least three weeks from now at the rate i'm going)**


	22. Itachi?

**YAY! this chapter's longer than the previous couple :D**

**before I forget, I AM SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING SOONER, though the reason for my lack-of-update is due to non-inspiration hitting me also, I actually found myself a job (YAAAAYYYYYY!) which, to quote my beta, means all I ever want to do is sleep all the time. **

**I will TRY to update sooner for the next chapter, but I have no idea how the writing timeline will end up. I mean, the story's coming to an end (it's kinda obvious of that fact, if you haven't noticed it already) and I don't want to end it on some lame-ass note or something (because that would be lame and stupid and I don't want that to happen**

* * *

Sakura turned to confirm her suspicions before completely freaking out, only to find that the man she had thought to be her lover was none other than his younger brother. At this realization, Sakura's jaw dropped in shock and her head whipped back in the direction of the man she had previously thought to be Sasuke.

The sight that met her eyes rendered her completely speechless.

As the dust cleared, a mangled body was shown to Sakura amongst what was once a wall, but now a pile of rubble.

What shocked her out of her stunned state was the malicious laughter from the other side of the room.

It seemed as though her head had moved on its own as it whipped towards the direction the horrendous sound had come from, finding the man Itachi had introduced as Madara Uchiha clutching at his stomach as though trying to hold it in, though only because he was laughing so hard at the situation.

Her head whipped back when she heard a noise she recognized as Sasuke's 'hn' that roughly translated to his laughter, her eyes wide with disbelief at the wide smirk adorning his features.

How could these men be so evil at heart as to find joy at what she had just done?

"You monsters," it was barely a whisper, but Sasuke's triumphant smirk turned to a frown as he turned to look upon the pinkette's features.

He raised his hand to graze her cheek as a show of affection, but when their skin came in contact, she flinched away, still somewhat shocked and not quite sure how to react in terms of defence.

"What's wrong, Sakura? I thought you would be ecstatic at having taken down our enemy?"

It took several moments for his words to sink in, but when they did she felt a need to put space between the two of them.

However, before she did so, her eyes turned hard and her voice became cold as ice.

"I would **never** harm any ally of mine," and with that, she rushed to Itachi's side.

Both Kisame and Konan were both surprised at the events that had just unfolded before them not moments ago. From what they had gathered, they had thought that Sakura was much closer with their teammate, as opposed to his younger brother.

Though their suspicions would have been confirmed on that matter had they seen the moment she had obviously avoided Sasuke's touch, but they were still unsure as to why she had shown the affection she had to him and purposefully hurt Itachi.

Their confusion rose further when they saw the young kunoichi run to their fallen comrade, screaming his name, though it was obvious for what reason she was doing so when her hands began to glow a green as beautiful as her eyes.

"Itachi," she called out, with no response, though they weren't really expecting one with the condition he seemed to be in. "I'm so sorry!"

The two blue Akatsuki members were so focused on the scene between the pinkette and her lover that they hadn't even noticed the two other Uchiha approach her, one to pull her away, the other merely backing the other up in any decision, the obvious follower of the duo.

"No! Let me go!" she screamed at the man who held her.

Sasuke raised his hand to her face once again, leaning in this time.

"Now now, my love," he smirked. "Now that you've taken care of the only threat against me, we can do as we please."

Sakura's eyes turned cold at this.

"Then I guess it's too bad our wants don't match," she spat out, kicking at Madara for her freedom, screaming Itachi's name.

"ITACHI!"

Madara's grasp on her tightened and Sasuke wiped his face with his sleeve, the anger in his eyes growing.

He raised his hand to Sakura's face and let her cheek take the full force of the hit.

"Watch your tongue!" he screamed out.

He raised his hand again and let loose, but before the hit could land, something stopped it.

"What the…?"

Sasuke looked to his hand to find it covered in sheets of paper. Sheets of paper which seemed to be holding his arm back.

"Kisame!"

The giant shark-man followed orders and grabbed the man holding his partner's lover, attempting to pull the two apart.

"You fool!" Madara screamed, trying to hit back, which forced him to loosen his grip on Sakura. "Let go of me!"

Konan jumped forward and caught Sakura, all the while keeping Sasuke trapped within her jutsu.

"You think I'm stupid?" Kisame said, causing the Uchiha's eyes to narrow.

Konan looked Sakura straight in the eyes, whose gaze was still focused on Itachi's crumpled form.

"Sakura!" she yelled to get the pinkette's attention, which happened to work. "You need to heal him before it's too late. He's the only one who has any chance of fighting again Madara we'll take care of these bastard Uchiha for now."

It took Sakura several moments to force herself into action, but when she had, she moved **fast**.

She pushed all distractions away as she concentrated on the near-dead Itachi, finding what damage she had done to him, causing her to miss Konan finish covering Sasuke with her origami sheets and Sasuke run towards where he thought Konan was, Chidori ablazing, and even Kisame swing Samehada at Madara, only to have the damn Uchiha use Kamui and Samehada to swing straight through him and nearly hit Konan.

Her chakra lit up throughout Itachi's body as she searched.

_Five cracked ribs, luckily they haven't damaged any organs, damaged spine, but still fixable, pelvis is misaligned, but a bit of chakra in these fists can fix that, _she smiled to herself quietly, knowing that what she thought would have been funny in Tsunade's presence, but in this situation, well, not so much. She focused back on Itachi's injuries though.

_His right arm seems to be fractured in several places; it must have hit the wall as well._

She then moved to where she'd landed her punch; his post-perfect face

_Broken jaw, how am I not surprised? As well as, _she felt around more thoroughly, _several missing teeth, but they're still freshly pulled, so I can get them back in without any problems and, wait. What's that?_

She felt something small, but after the hit he had just taken, she needed to check **everything**, just in case.

And it was a good thing she did, otherwise she would have missed the slight fracture to the back of his skull, nor would she have noticed the blood his brain now seemed to be slightly excreting.

_Fuck._

* * *

**now for the 'thank you's**

**omg! my beta is a fricken AMAZING person! her name is Chocoholic princess and she is quite awesome**

**and a very special thank you to "NaRcIsSiStIcAlLy In LoVe" for recently getting into the story and reviewing all the chapters you liked (all of them... heheheh) **

**as well as "kimz. ", "kathymoonstone", "Cherrybomb-liv", "DiizGiirlJess", "Tamu-chan", "Coldwinters", "Masamune Uchiha", "moodymel" and all guests for your keeping with the story for a while now. thank you guys, I really appreciate the reviews (hint hint)**


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